Tamron Hall was born on September 16, 1970, in Luling, Texas. Hall is famous for being an American broadcast journalist. Deadline: Crime on Investigation Discovery channel is the TV program that Tamron is currently hosting.
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Background
Tamron was raised by her mother, Mary Newton, and her stepfather, Clarence Newton Sr. Her stepfather was caring, loving, and kind to her. He came into her life after her parents got divorced when she was only 8 years old. At first, she did not like him because she wanted her parents to be together again.
Clarence ended up being a great father to Tamron. According to her, he was the one that inspired her to become a journalist. He instilled the idea in her ever since her childhood days.
After completing elementary and high school, she enrolled at Temple University. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism. Little did Tamron know that she would become the first African American anchor to be born in Luling, Texas
Work in Broadcast Journalism
KBTX, a college station in Texas is where Tamron got her career start when she worked as general assignment reporter. She then moved to KTVT in Dallas, Texas and worked there from 1997 to 2007. Following that, she went to WFLD-TV in Chicago. Since she was a Chicago resident, she often reported on Chicago’s political issues. She also worked with MSNBC as their general reporter and fill-in anchor.
She gained prominence as a replacement for Keith Olberman in the Countdown with Keith Olberman .Tamron later partnered with David Shuster and they both co-hosted a program together. She appeared in the Big Picture which premiered in June 2009 and ended in January 2010.
She got her own show called News Nation with Tamron Hall. She became the primary substitute for news anchor with Natalie Morales on The Today Show.
She became the host of a show called Crime with Tamron Hall. It started in September 2013, and is a weekly news show that explores the occurrence of crimes. The show covered the discovery and investigation of various crimes. Hall and her team tried to go deeper in order to uncover and understand how these crimes takes place. Tamron said that the show was dedicated to her elder sister who died in 2004 and the incident was concluded to be a homicide, but was never resolved. During the show, she interviewed psychological experts, prosecutors, and detectives to understand how criminals think and why they do what they do.
The Investigation Discovery premiered a special in the summer of 2016 called Guns on Campus: Tamron Hall Investigates. The special was about the 50th anniversary of the tower shooting at the University of Texas at Austin.
When asked by Black Enterprise how she deals with negative criticism and being a fearless woman, Tamron said, “It should never bother someone that you are unapologetically who you are. I am unapologetically Texan, Southern, a black woman—I come from my culture, but I am inclusive. When I look back on my life at 48, and the thing I’m trying my best to hold on to—not my youth…it’s that I was fearlessness. I think we all go through that where we take on more responsibilities—life, the savings account—we lose some of that fearlessness that allows you to take those leaps of faith. My spirituality means the world to me, but God is not going to help me unless I help myself. Having that fearless energy going in and shaking hands, meeting people and asking for the job. When you don’t get it, ask again, and again because no is nothing. No is a yes waiting.”
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Hall’s other credits include a national news anchor spot for NBC News, the day-side anchor for MSNBC, host of her own program called MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall, and a co-host of Today's Take, which was the third hour of Today.
Tamron has been part of many news publications including Huffington Post, Forbes, Ebony Magazine, and several others. Hall continues to report on crime on Investigation Discovery channel’s Deadline: Crime. She doesn’t see herself slowing down anytime soon because reporting on crime has reignited her passion for broadcast journalism.
Family Life
Hall has a daughter, Elizabeth, with her partner Lawrence O’Donnell. O’Donnell is the host of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell”. They’ve kept their relationship private and haven’t allowed the media to write on details about their relationship. O’Donnell has a daughter from a previous relationship and an ex-wife, Kathryn Harrold.
Aside from her work as a news anchor, she also works with various charities. She has achieved many things when it comes to her career and more success seems to be on the way.
She loves her job as well as her relationship with her viewers. The biggest achievement of her life for her is when anyone tells her that she is so real. She likes to speak from her heart while delivering the news which gives her broadcasting style a sense of realism. She feels speaks about the issues from her heart. This is the main element of her broadcasting style and award winning personality.
Remerging Her Sister
Tamron’s step sister, Renate was a victim of domestic violence and murdered in 2004. She was found face down in the pool in Texas after being assaulted by her partner. The officers that were in charge of the case told the family they knew who the murderer was the suspect was never brought to justice. She described the painful and sad day when she received the news of her sister’s death and how she was found lifeless in her own pool with her face down. She expressed her frustration at how she couldn’t help her poor sister. She took part of the blame for her loss. The incident drove her to host Deadline: Crime because of the personal experience she had as a result of domestic violence.
During one of the posts on The Today Show’s blog, she spoke about the fight and struggles she had when talking about her sister and how the murder case has not been solved. At the beginning, she didn’t want to talk about it because she felt people would think that she wanted to gain cheap popularity. She decided she could no longer stay silent and felt it was time to take action. Hall realized that there were warning signs before her sister’s death and she wonders if more could have been done to help her sister.
Awards and Accomplishments
Hall was nominated for an Emmy for her consumer report segment, The Bottom Line. The program first aired in 1998 and was a consumer report program. In October 2010, she won an Emmy for her NBC News segment, The Inauguration of Barack Obama. Another one of her programs, Education Nation: Teacher Town Hall got her an Emmy nomination in 2011.
In 2010, Temple University gave her the Lew Klein Alumni award in the Media category. She won the Edward R. Murrow Award in 2016 for her report on domestic abuse. She brought to light the many issues that victims of domestic abuse have to face.
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2020
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