As chronicled in her book of the same name, Hoda Kotb has “survived war zones, bad hair, cancer and Kathie Lee Gifford.” Currently serving as the co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s TODAY, Kotb began hosting the show since it debuted in September 2007, and currently hosts alongside Kathie Lee. Kotb has also been a Dateline NBCcorrespondent since April 1998, and she is a New York Times best-selling author for her book, Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer and Kathie Lee. Her second book Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives was released in late 2012.

Kotb has covered a wide variety of domestic and international stories across all NBC News platforms as well as numerous human-interest stories and features. She covered the aftermath and one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a story personal to Kotb who lived in New Orleans for six years. She has reported on the war in Iraq, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Kotb conducted an exclusive interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, an internationally recognized leader of Burma, marking the first time in 11 years that Suu Kyi was interviewed by an American television network.

Kotb traveled to Southeast Asia to cover the devastating effects of the 2004 tsunami, and also co-anchored an msnbc special on race, “Shades of Hope…Shadows of Hate,” which was reported from Birmingham, Alabama, at the former site of a Klan bombing.

Kotb is a three-year breast cancer survivor and has been a part of several initiatives to raise awareness about the disease which was first diagnosed in 2007.

Kotb has received numerous awards including the 2008 Gracie Award for Individual Achievement, the 2008 Alfred I. duPont – Columbia University award and the prestigious Peabody in 2006 for her Dateline NBC report “The Education of Ms. Groves.” The four-time Emmy nominee also won the 2004 Headliner Award, the 2003 Gracie Award and the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award.

Since Gifford and Kotb teamed up, the fourth hour of TODAY has been hailed as “appointment television” by Entertainment Weekly, and “TODAY’s happy hour” by USA Today. In 2010, the TODAY show received the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Morning Program.

Kotb graduated from Virginia Tech University with a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast journalism and resides in New York City.