Oprah is best known as the multiple-Emmy Award winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest rated talk show in television history. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a magazine publisher.

Born in rural poverty, and then raised by a welfare mother in the ghetto, Winfrey became a millionaire at age 32 when her talk show went national. Because of the amount of revenue the show generated, Winfrey was in a position to negotiate ownership of the show and start her own production company. By 1994 the show's ratings were still thriving and Winfrey negotiated a contract that earned her nine figures a year. Considered the richest woman in entertainment by the early 1990s, at age 41 Winfrey's wealth crossed another milestone when with a net worth of $340 million; she replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400. Although blacks are 12% of the U.S. population, Winfrey has remained the only black person wealthy enough to rank among America's 400 richest people nearly every year since 1995.

With a 2000 net-worth of $800 million, Winfrey is believed to have been the richest African American of the 20th century.
Forbes' international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world's only black billionaire for the past three straight years and as the first black woman billionaire in world history. Winfrey's 2006 net-worth of $1.4 billion placed her as the 562nd richest person in the world.

Public Name: Oprah Winfrey
Birth Name: Orpah Gail Winfrey
Date of Birth: January 29, 1954
Place of Birth: Kosciusko, Mississippi

Filmography

• Bee Movie, 2007 
• Charlotte's Web, 2006 (voice)
• The 2006 Black Movie Awards, 2006 (TV)
• Our Friend, Martin, 1999 (V) (voice)
• Beloved, 1998
• Before Women Had Wings, 1997 (TV)
• "Ellen", 1997 TV Episode
• There Are No Children Here, 1993 (TV)
• Lincoln, 1992 (TV) (voice)
• "Brewster Place", 1990 TV Series
• The Women of Brewster Place, 1989 (TV)
• Native Son, 1986
• The Color Purple, 1985

Awards

• People's Choice Award Favorite Talk Show Host "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 2004
• Bob Hope Humanitarian Award 2002
• Emmy Oustanding Made for Television Movie "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays with Morrie" 2000
• Producers Guild of America Award Norman Felton Producer of the Year for Longform Television "Tuesdays with Morrie" 2000
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best TV Movie "Tuesdays With Morrie" 1999
• Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement 1998
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk Show Host "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1998
• NAACP Image Award Outstanding News, Talk or Informational Special "Dinner With Oprah: A Lifetime Exclusive--Toni Morrison" 1997
• NAACP Image Award Outstanding News, Talk or Informational Series "The Oprah Winfrey Show: Oprah's Book Club--Dinner With Maya Angelou" 1997
• People's Choice Award Favorite Female Television Performer 1997 - 98
• George Foster Peabody Award 1996
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk/Service Show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1994 - 95
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Children's Special "Shades of a Single Protein" ("ABC Afterschool Special") 1993
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1991 - 92
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk/Service Show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1991 - 92
• NAACP Image Award Outstanding News, Talk or Information Series "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1991
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk/Service Show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1989
• International Radio and Television Society Broadcaster of the Year 1988
• People's Choice Award Favorite Talk Show Host 1988
• Daytime Emmy Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host "The Oprah Winfrey Show" 1987