Hoda is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality, best known for co-anchoring NBC’s Today show. She was born on August 9, 1964, in Norman, Oklahoma, to Egyptian parents and was raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Alexandria, Virginia. She then attended Virginia Tech, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism.

After college, Kotb worked at several stations, such as WXVT, WQAD, WINK, and WWL, before joining NBC News in 1998 as a correspondent for Dateline NBC and other news programs. In 2007, Kotb became the first host of Today’s fourth-hour weekday segment, with Kathie Lee Gifford joining her as the segment’s co-host in 2008. Jenna Bush Hager later became Kotb’s co-host in 2019 after Gifford left the show. 

In 2018, Kotb joined Savannah Guthrie as a co-anchor of Today’s 7 a.m. to 9 a.m segment, with the duo becoming the first all-female anchor team to headline the show. She left the show in 2025 for another role within NBC, but returned temporarily in 2026 to fill in for Guthrie after her mother went missing.

Hoda Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga, the University of New Orleans tennis coach, though the marriage ended in divorce in 2008. In 2013, she began a relationship with financier Joel Schiffman, and the couple became engaged and adopted two children. However, in 2022, Kotb revealed that they had ended their engagement and would instead focus on co-parenting their children.