Serena Altschul (born October 13, 1970) is an American
broadcast journalist
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...
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 ...
.
Early life and education
Altschul was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, a daughter of author and botanist Siri von Reis and
Arthur Altschul
Arthur Goodhart Altschul (April 6, 1920 – March 17, 2002) was an American banker and a Goldman Sachs Group partner,Lehman banking family. Her mother is of half-
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
and half-
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
ancestry and her father is of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
ancestry. After her parents divorced, two-year-old Serena and two siblings were raised by their mother.
Altschul has four siblings. Her brother, Arthur Goodhart Altschul Jr., was married to journalist Rula Jebreal and her sister, Emily Altschul, is married to former journalist and
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
Deputy Commissioner John Miller. She also has two half-brothers, Charles Altschul and mathematician
Stephen Altschul
Stephen Frank Altschul (born February 28, 1957) is an American mathematician who has designed algorithms that are used in the field of bioinformatics (the Karlin-Altschul algorithm and its successors). Altschul is the co-author of the BLAST algori ...
from her father's previous marriage and a step-brother,
Whitney Sudler-Smith
Whitney Sudler-Smith (born June 2, 1968) is an American filmmaker, television director, and classically trained guitarist. He is the Creator and Executive Producer of Bravo (U.S. TV network), Bravo's ''Southern Charm'', a Reality television#Docu ...
, from her father's later marriage to reality television series personality Patricia Dey.
Altschul attended Scripps College''CBS Sunday Morning'': Serena Altschul for a few years, studying
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
, but did not graduate. In 1993, while still in college, she was the associate producer of ''
The Last Party
''The Last Party: Scenes From My Life with Norman Mailer'' is a 1997 book by Adele Morales, second wife of Norman Mailer, whom she married in 1954. It was published in the US by Barricade Books.
The book is a memoir of Morales' and Mailer's ...
'', a political documentary.
Career
After school, she worked for two years at
Channel One News
Channel One News was an American news content provider. The daily news program was accompanied by commercial advertising for marketing in schools, with supplementary educational resources. The Peabody award-winning Channel One News program w ...
, a channel seen nationwide in high schools, as an
anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
True Life
''True Life'' is an American documentary television series that aired on MTV from March 31, 1998 to June 21, 2017. Each episode follows a particular topic, such as heroin addiction as in the first episode – "Fatal Dose". The show is created by ...
''. From 2002 to 2003 Altschul worked at
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. She hosted and produced a CNN special on the return of PCP. She continued working at MTV News while at CNN. On December 23, 2003, she was named a
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
contributing correspondent. Since 2013 she has appeared on ''
CBS Sunday Morning
''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine television program that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original hos ...
''.
She played herself on Jay-Z's 1999 song, "Dope Man". She also appeared as herself in the films ''
Queen of the Damned
''Queen of the Damned'' is a 2002 vampire film directed by Michael Rymer, loosely based on the third novel of Anne Rice's '' The Vampire Chronicles'' series, ''The Queen of the Damned'' (1988), although the film contains many plot elements from t ...
'' and ''
Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats (sometimes simply known as The Pussycats) are a fictional girl group
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense i ...