Zubin Mehenti is an American sportscaster and radio host. He joined

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

in 2011 and has served as the anchor for several variations of the channel's flagship program, '' SportsCenter''. Mehenti formerly co-hosted the ESPN Radio morning show titled ''Keyshawn, JWill and Zubin''.

Early life

Mehenti was born on August 5, 1978, in East Windsor,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. His parents were immigrants from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, making him a first-generation American. He attended

Hightstown High School Hightstown High School is a four-year comprehensive high school, comprehensive state school, public Secondary education in the United States, high school that serves students in ninth grade, ninth through twelfth grades three communities in Mer ...

in Hightstown, New Jersey. Mehenti graduated from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in journalism and another B.A. in political science.

Career

After graduating from Rutgers, Mehenti was hired as a producer for Melinda Murphy at New York-based station

WPIX-TV WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The CW ...

. He began his career as a reporter with

WMGM-TV WMGM-TV (channel 40) is a television station licensed to Wildwood, New Jersey, United States, affiliated with the True Crime Network. It is owned by TelevisaUnivision alongside Vineland, New Jersey–licensed Univision owned-and-operated statio ...

Wildwood, New Jersey Wildwood is a city in Cape May County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area and is a popular summer resort destination along the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's year-ro ...

as a weekend sportscaster. Mehenti left the east coast in 2001 when he was hired as a weekend sportscaster for

WOI-DT WOI-DT (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving the Des Moines area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CW affiliate KCWI-TV (channel 23), also licensed to Ames. Both statio ...

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, a station he remained at until 2005. He then worked at

KDVR-TV KDVR (channel 31) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT (channel 22) in Fort Collins. The two stations are owned by Nexstar Media Gr ...

and

KWGN-TV KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KDVR, channel 31 (and its Fort Colli ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

for six years. In 2011, Mehenti was hired to work at ESPN. He has primarily worked as the host or co-host of several iterations of '' SportsCenter''. In August 2020, Mehenti was chosen as a co-host for a ESPN Radio morning program with

Keyshawn Johnson Joseph Keyshawn Johnson (born July 22, 1972) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for the University of Southern Calif ...

and Jay Williams.

Personal life

Mehenti is a fan of the

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

sports teams. In an interview, he said that

Greg Schiano Gregory Edward Schiano (born June 1, 1966) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Rutgers University, a position he held from 2001 to 2011 and resumed before the 2020 season. Schiano served as the head coach for the Tampa ...

was one of his favorite sportspeople for improving the Rutgers football program and leading the team to five straight bowl game berths. His favorite hobby is running.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehenti, Zubin American television sports announcers American sports radio personalities ESPN people Hightstown High School alumni People from East Windsor, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni 1978 births Living people