Childhood & Early Life
Bianna was born on June 15, 1978 in Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. She is the only child of her parents, Vitaly Golodryga and Zhanna Golodryga. Her parents left the USSR and moved to Houston, Texas as political refugees when she was only two years old.
Bianna completed her schooling from High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She pursued higher education at the University of Texas, majoring in East European and Eurasian Studies. She also studied economics at the same university.
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Career
Prior to her career in television, Bianna worked in the financial services sector. She began her television career in 2001 as a bureau producer for the cable news channel, CNBC. During this phase of her career, she did a live coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attack and also conducted numerous interviews of top business leaders. She has interviewed major newsmakers, including President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and investor Warren Buffett.
In 2004, she became a producer and produced several segments of the nation’s most watched financial news show, ‘The Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo’. In addition to this, she has produced interviews of the world's top corporate and political leaders.
At CNBC, Bianna covered various high profile events for the network, including the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Apart from her production duties at CNBC, she also began contributing as an on-air correspondent for the financial channel, NBC Network in 2006.
After having worked for CNBC for six long years, Bianna decided to quit and then joined the ABC network in 2007. It was only after joining the ABC network that fame came in search of her. She had a dramatic change in fortune after joining hands with the network.
Working for ABC, she hosted some of the popular shows, including ‘Good Morning America’. She got an opportunity to work as a co-anchor of ‘GMA Weekend’ in April 2010. Since then, the program has become the most watched Saturday morning news show.
She handled the show from 2007 to 2014 and appeared regularly on ‘Way Too Early’ and ‘Morning Joe’, aired on MSNBC. She also appeared on MSNBC’s show, ‘The 11th Hour with Brian Williams’. She moved to Yahoo network at the end of 2014.
Bianna is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relation, a non-profit research organization. She is a regular columnist for the Huffington Post, a news blogging website.
In 2017, Bianna presented a report on the US President Donald Trump’s plan to privatize the air traffic control system, which was then run by the Federal Aviation Administration. She even threw light on all the pros and cons of the proposal.
In September 2017, she simultaneously started working for CBS News and CNN. She signed multi-year deals with both the networks, making it an unusual deal. As per her contract, Bianna may contribute stories to any CBS news show but must focus more on the show, ‘CBS This Morning’. She also fills in as an anchor for ‘CBS This Morning’.
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She works for both the networks, contributing with reports to CBS shows and serving as an on-air correspondent for the CNN show, ‘The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer’.
The first story that Bianna filed for ‘CBS This Morning’ was from her hometown, Houston where she covered the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. She reported live about the quality of water that was supplied in the flood-affected areas.
In an exclusive interview with Huff Post, Bianna spoke about her professional and personal life. She confessed that as a child, she was embarrassed about her origin and ethnicity. But then as maturity crept in, she decided to major in Russian studies and is now teaching Russian to Peter Orszag, a former Obama and Clinton administration official. Her stories on the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the US election made her the center of attention at social gatherings.
In another show, aired in June 2017, she interviewed the Chancellor of the University of Texas System, William McRaven about how the Russians view their role in international affairs.
In the book by Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen, ‘Shattered’, which provides an insight into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, it was revealed that Bianna missed a chance to interview Clinton just because of a minor confusion. When Clinton gave her consent to be interviewed by Bianna, the campaign press team thought that she was referring to Brianna, as in CNN reporter, Brianna Keilar. By the time the mix up was noticed, it was too late to cancel Clinton’s interview with Keilar.
Bianna had no idea that she had lost an opportunity to interview Clinton until she read a copy of the book ‘Shattered’.
Facts About Bianna Golodryga
Bianna Golodryga was born in Moldova, a small country in Eastern Europe, before moving to the United States with her family as a child.
She is fluent in Russian and has utilized her language skills to conduct interviews with prominent Russian figures during her journalism career.
In addition to her work in journalism, Golodryga has also been involved in advocacy efforts for causes such as immigration reform and women's rights.
Golodryga is known for her sense of humor and quick wit, often injecting lighthearted moments into her reporting and interviews.
Despite her busy schedule as a journalist and news anchor, Golodryga is also a dedicated mother and often shares insights into balancing work and family life.
