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Albert Lincoln Roker (born August
20, 1954) is an American television broadcaster, best known as
the weatherman for NBC's Today show.
Born in Queens, New York, Roker attended Xavier High School in
Manhattan. Later, he began his weathercasting career while he
was a student at the State University of New York at Oswego.
Roker worked in Syracuse, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and
Washington, D.C., before returning to New York in 1983 where he
started as weekend weather for local station WNBC and backup
weatherman for then WNBC chief meteorologist Frank Field and one
year later in 1984 rose to chief meteorologist at WNBC-TV when
Frank Field left to join WCBS. Roker became the weekend
weatherman for NBC News's Sunday Today show in 1987 and NBC
News's Satudary Today show in 1992 roles he kept utill he went
to the weekday Today show full time in 1996, while keeping his
WNBC duties. In 1994 the Today show weatherman Willard Scott
stop working on Fridays and Roker replaced Scott on the Friday
edtions of Today. In 1995 Scott stoped working on Mondays and
Roker replaced Scott on the Monday edtions on Today. Roker also
filled in for Joe Witte on the fromer NBC News program NBC News
at Sunrise from 1983 to 1996. In 1996, he replaced Willard Scott
as the full-time weekday weatherman and left WNBC'S 6 and 11 pm
newscast where he was replaced by Janice Huff and stayed on
WNBC'S Live at Five for 4 more years, and left WNBC four years
later in 2000 when Janice Huff replaced Roker on Live at Five.
He holds American Meteorological Society Television Seal 238. In
2002, the animated series, The Proud Family, he was portrayed as
a genie-like creature who grants wishes at a horrible price.
Roker has hosted numerous events for NBC since 1994, including
Christmas at Rockefeller Center since 1997 and the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1994, and produced several
programs for PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, and the Food Network. He is also
the author of several non-fiction books, and an avid barbecue
enthusiast. Roker has also filled in for Katie Couric and Matt
Lauer as co-host of The Today Show. Roker also filled in for
Jack Ford as co-host of the Sunday Today show on father's day in
1999 which was the first time that Roker acted as anchor of a
Today show program.
In 2002 in accordance with his late father's wish, Roker
underwent gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, which he said
he did after failing at numerous diets. Eight months after the
surgery, the New York Daily News reported he dropped 100 pounds
(45 kg) off his 320 pound figure.
His wife is fellow journalist Deborah Roberts, who has done
reporting for both ABC and NBC where she met Roker when she
first joined the network in 1990 as a reporter and at that time
Roker was a weatherman for WNBC'S Live at Five, 6, and 11pm
newscasts. They both worked together on the today from 1990-1995
with Roberts filling in for Faith Daniels, Marget Larson, and
Matt Lauer at the Newsdesk and Roker filling in for Willard
Scott as the weatherman.
Al Roker
Filmography
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