Colleen Ann Williams (born March 6, 1955) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. She is a

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

of KNBC Channel 4 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, currently serving on the 5 and 11 p.m. weekday broadcasts. She also reports on occasion for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

. Williams is one of the most-recognized anchors in the Los Angeles area, the second-largest

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Williams once could be recognized for her trademark hairstyle which until the late 1990s included a prominent silver streak.

Early life

Williams was born in

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. An Air Force brat, she moved around the country throughout her childhood. She attended college at

Creighton University Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergra ...

in Omaha,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

before finishing her bachelor's degree in education at

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

Career

Williams taught in the Omaha Public School system for a few years before starting her news career with

WOWT WOWT (channel 6) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on Farnam Street near downtown Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "tower farm" ...

in Omaha. Williams joined KNBC in 1986 from cross-town rival KCBS-TV where she anchored the 5 p.m. news for three years, succeeding

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

after she left for NBC News. Prior to her L.A. arrival at KCBS (which was then KNXT), Williams anchored at

KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside C ...

, the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

station in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Williams was particularly visible during the O. J. Simpson murder trial, which she covered for KNBC and MSNBC, co-anchoring a daily summary of the trial each evening

It was after the Simpson trial concluded that Williams succeeded long-time 11 p.m. anchor

Kelly Lange Kelly Lange (born Dorothy Scafard; December 14, 1937) is an American journalist, most notable for being the first woman to be a nightly news anchor in Los Angeles. Lange, a Shakespeare major in college, is a longtime news anchor in Los Angeles, a v ...

. Lange left the station after 25 years to work briefly for KCBS-TV before leaving television entirely in 2001. On August 29, 2009, Williams attended the 61st Emmy Awards at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

Awards

Williams has received Golden mic awards: * coverage of the Chatsworth train crash * NBC4's special "LA Riots: Rubble to Rebirth." * coverage of 1996 Atlanta Summer Games Centennial Park bombing Williams was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio & Television News Association.

References

External links

Biography from NBCLosAngeles.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Colleen Living people American television journalists Creighton University alumni Journalists from California Television anchors from Los Angeles NBC News people People from Omaha, Nebraska People from Pasadena, California People from San Francisco People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Television anchors from San Francisco University of Nebraska Omaha alumni American women television journalists 1955 births 21st-century American women