Ginger Renee Colonomos ( née Zuidgeest; born January 13, 1981), known by her

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Ginger Zee, is an American television personality. She is the chief

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

for

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, after having been the network's weekend meteorologist.

Early life and education

Zee was born Ginger Renee Zuidgeest on January 13, 1981, in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before 1920. While many other ...

, the daughter of Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft (''née'' Hemleb) and Robert Zuidgeest. The family moved to

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

before she was 1 year old. Zee was named after " Ginger" from '' Gilligan's Island'' by her

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

father, due to his love of the show. In her extended family, Zee has a stepfather named Carl Craft, and two half-sisters, Adrianna and Elaina Craft. Zee's paternal grandparents are Adriaan Cornelis "Adrian" or "Arie" Zuidgeest and Hillegonda "Hilda" Zuidgeest (''née'' VanderShoor), who both immigrated to the United States from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Zee's maternal grandfather is George Joseph Hemleb and grandmother Paula Adeline Wesner. Zee said she chose to be a meteorologist because "I saw a

waterspout A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus cloud. In the ...

on Lake Michigan when I was eight... I was mesmerized. I really thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen." In 1999, Zee graduated from Rockford High School in

Rockford, Michigan Rockford is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,719 at the 2010 census. Located along the Rogue River, the city is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is about north of the city of Grand Rapi ...

. After that, Zee went on to

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

, where she obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

as well as a major in both mathematics and Spanish. Her goal at graduation was to be a meteorologist on ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'' by age 30.

Career

After graduating from college, Zee worked for various media outlets such as

WEYI-TV WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services ...

in Flint, Michigan,

WYIN-TV WYIN (channel 56), branded on-air as Lakeshore PBS, is a secondary PBS member television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, serving the Chicago area. It is owned by Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, Inc., as a sister station ...

Merrillville, Indiana Merrillville is a town in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 35,246 at the 2010 census. Merrillville is in east-central Lake County, in the Chicago metropolitan area. On January 1, 2015, Merrillville became the ...

WLAV-FM WLAV-FM (96.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock music format in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is the dominant classic rock-formatted radio station in the market and is generally a top ten performer in the Grand Rapids ratings. His ...

and

WOOD-TV WOOD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed ABC affiliate WOTV (channel 41 ...

both in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

WBMA-LD WBMA-LD (channel 58) is a low-power television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WABM (channel 68) and Homewood-licensed CW affiliate ...

ABC 33/40 in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

as an intern under chief meteorologist

James Spann James Max Spann Jr. (born June 6, 1956) is a television meteorologist and podcast host based in Birmingham, Alabama. He currently works for WBMA-LD (''ABC 33/40''), Birmingham's ABC affiliate. Spann has worked in the field since 1978, and is oft ...

, and WMAQ in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

owned and operated station. While working at WMAQ from 2006-2011, Zee was once asked to fill in as a guest meteorologist on the weekend edition of ''

'', and this fulfilled her high school goal. In addition, Zee is an AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist. Zee reached national prominence when she joined ''

Good Morning America Weekend ''Good Morning America Weekend'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA Weekend'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. The first weekend edition of ''Good Morning America'' premiered on January 3, 1993, airing only on Sund ...

'' on November 12, 2011. Zee occasionally appears on other ABC programming such as '' Nightline'' and ''

ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...

''. On December 2, 2013,

announced that Zee would become Chief Meteorologist for ''Good Morning America'' and weather editor for ABC News, succeeding

Sam Champion Samuel James Champion (born August 13, 1961) is an American weather anchor who is best known for his combined 25-year career on the ABC flagship station WABC-TV and ''Good Morning America''. He formerly co-anchored '' AMHQ: America's Morning He ...

, who took a job with

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...

. In 2015, she competed in an episode of ''

Celebrity Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television quiz show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. Over the years, the show has featured many t ...

'' against

Bellamy Young Bellamy Young (born Amy Maria Young; February 19, 1970) is an American actress, producer and singer, best known for her role as Melody "Mellie" Grant in the ABC drama series'' Scandal'' (2012–2018). In 2014 for her portrayal of Mellie, she won ...

, who won, and

Josh Gad Joshua Ilan Gad (born February 23, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Olaf in the '' Frozen'' franchise, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical '' The Book of Mormon'', and playing Le Fou in the live-action ada ...

. On March 4, 2016, Zee was announced as a celebrity competitor on the 22nd season of '' ABC's Dancing with the Stars''. She was paired with professional dancer

Valentin Chmerkovskiy Valentin Aleksandrovich "Val" Chmerkovskiy ( uk, Валентин Олександрович "Вал" Чмерковський; born March 24, 1986) is a Ukrainian-American professional dancer, best known for his appearances on the U.S. version ...

. The couple finished in third place behind Paige VanZandt in second and Nyle DiMarco in first.

Personal life

At age 21, Zee was diagnosed with

narcolepsy Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep–wake cycles. Symptoms often include periods of excessive daytime sleepiness and brief involuntary sleep episodes. About 70% of those affect ...

. In August 2013, Zee became engaged to

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...

personality Benjamin Aaron Colonomos, known as Ben Aaron. The couple wed on June 7, 2014. Their first child together, a son, named Adrian Benjamin Colonomos, was born in December 2015 in Petoskey, Michigan. On August 14, 2017, she announced on ''Good Morning America'' she was pregnant with her second child. In February 2018, she gave birth to another son, Miles Macklin. The family lives in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zee, Ginger Living people 1981 births Television meteorologists in New York City American people of Dutch descent ABC News personalities Participants in American reality television series Valparaiso University alumni People from Kent County, Michigan People from Orange, California Women meteorologists

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links