Fredricka Whitfield was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to a father who was an Olympic medalist and later became a career U.S. diplomat. She lived in Somalia as a child and later attended Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, Maryland. At Howard University, she anchored news on the campus radio station WHUR. She also studied in France as an exchange student.

Whitfield began her television career as a reporter and morning anchor at WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina. She then worked at WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut, and KTVT in Texas. Next came NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C., where she was an evening anchor, and WPLG in Miami. From 1995 to 2001, she was an Atlanta-based NBC News correspondent, reporting for NBC Nightly News, Today and Dateline NBC.

Whitfield joined CNN in 2002 and has since reported from around the world. She was part of CNN’s team covering the Southeast Asia tsunami and covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from the Persian Gulf region. She also reported from Beijing during the 2008 Olympics and from London during the 2012 Games. Today she anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom from Atlanta.