Geoffrey Robinson Bennett (born April 25, 1980[1]) is an American broadcast journalist and a co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour alongside Amna Nawaz.[2] He has worked as an editor, reporter and news anchor on radio, cable and broadcast television, and online.
Geoff Bennett | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 25, 1980 |
| Education | Morehouse College (BA, English) |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcast journalist, editor, reporter, anchor |
| Known for | PBS NewsHour, PBS News Weekend, NPR, NBC, MSNBC |
| Spouse | Beth Bennett (m. 2010) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Gary Bennett (brother) |
Early life
Bennett grew up in Voorhees, New Jersey.[1][3] His father, Gary Bennett Sr., was a school administrator. His mother, Lynnca, taught kindergarten.[4] He has an older brother, Gary Bennett Jr.[5]
Career
Bennett graduated with honors from Morehouse College with a BA in English in 2002.[6] During his senior year, he pursued an internship at ABC News where he was mentored by Carole Simpson, then the weekend anchor of ABC World News Tonight.[7]
The internship led to his first job in journalism, an off-air production assistant at World News Tonight at ABC News in New York and then associate producer.[7][8]
In 2007, he joined NPR in Los Angeles as a digital producer and editor for News & Notes, and was regularly heard on-air.[9] He moved to Washington, D.C. in 2009 to be an editor at Weekend Edition.
Starting in 2013, he reported on-camera from Washington, D.C., for NY1 News and other Time Warner Cable news channels. He was also a guest host of Washington Journal on C-SPAN.[10]
He returned to NPR in 2017 as an on-air reporter based in Washington, D.C., covering Congress and the White House.[8][7]
In November 2017, he became a White House correspondent for NBC and substitute anchor for MSNBC.[10] In September, 2021, on the day that police and paramedics were indicted in the death of Elijah McClain, he choked up while reading the young African-American man's last words.[11]
In November 2021, while continuing to contribute to NBC and MSNBC, he started work as the chief Washington correspondent for the PBS NewsHour[12] and the anchor of PBS News Weekend.[13]
He and Amna Nawaz have been co-anchors of the PBS NewsHour since January 2023, when they replaced Judy Woodruff.[14]
In January 2023, he established a scholarship at his alma mater, Morehouse College, benefitting English and journalism majors.[15] In November 2023, Bennett joined the Board of Trustees of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.[16]
Personal life
He is married to Carolyn Elizabeth "Beth" Bennett née Perry.[4] They have one son and live in the Washington, D.C. area.[10]