Media
Lester Holt – Holt is an American news journalist who anchors the weekend editions of NBC’s Today Show and Dateline NBC. He is also the interim weeknight NBC Nightly News anchor, filling in for suspended primary anchor Brian Williams. His maternal grandparents were born, raised and married in Jamaica. His grandmother was from Manchester and his grandfather from Spanish Town. His mother was also born and raised in Manchester. Holt was awarded the 1990 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his work on CBS’s 48 Hours: No Place Like Home and an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University in 2012. Holt and his former Today co-anchor Jenna Wolfe explored their Jamaican roots in 2012, where it was discovered that he is a second cousin of broadcaster and producer Scott Wilson.
Michaela Perriera – The CNN news anchor of the morning show New Day who was adopted at the early age of three months old. As an adult, she decided to take on the arduous task of finding her birth parents. The journey first led her to her mother’s family. Sadly, her mother had passed away a year earlier from colon cancer, so they never got to meet. However, tracing her DNA led her to finding out that she has Jamaican Roots, by way of her birth father. Unfortunately, Perriera has never successfully reconnected with him, but she did find her birth sister Marnie along the way. She recently visited Montego Bay, Jamaica to explore the place of her heritage.
Al Roker – Albert Lincoln Roker, Jr was born in Queens, New York, to a mother of Jamaican descent and a father of Bahamian roots. He has been the weather and feature anchor on NBC’s Today Show since January 1996, where he pioneered the use of computer graphics for weathercasting. Among his career highlights are reporting from inside Hurricane Wilma, co-hosting the Rose Parade, and the annual ‘Christmas at Rockefeller Center’ since 1985, and getting an exclusive interview with Peanuts creator Charles Schulz shortly before his death from colon cancer in 2000. Roker, who has also hosted various programs on Food Network, is a foodie, and in 2013, he shared two of his mother’s famous Jamaican dishes in the segment ‘Today’s Kitchen Melting Pot,’ where he cooked with fellow ‘Jamerican’ Chef Charles Mattocks. Roker is also the author of five best-selling books and an actor with some 29 credits. He has twice been Best Weatherman by New York magazine and has won six daytime Emmy awards. He is a first cousin to late actress Roxie Roker (The Jeffersons) her son, rocker Lenny Kravitz.
Jenna Wolfe – Wolfe was born in Kingston, Jamaica, but her family moved to Pétion-Ville, Haiti, where she grew up, before heading to the US in 1989. She began her journalism career after graduating from Binghamton University in new York with a degree in French and English in 1996, working as a news and sports reporter for Binghamton’s Fox affiliate, WICZ. She eventually became the first female sportscaster at WB affiliate WPHL in Philadelphia, and later joined NBC’s Today Show as a correspondent in 2007, and served as co-anchor on Weekend Today from 2007-2012. In 2014, she was promoted to Today lifestyle and fitness correspondent and NBC News national correspondent. Wolfe and Holt explored their Jamaican roots in 2012, where it was discovered that her family was actually neighbours with Bob Marley.
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