Andy Cohen

Andy Cohen
Cohen in 2025
Andy Cohen
Born	Andrew Joseph Cohen 6/2/1968
Birthplace	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Television host, producer, writer
Employer	Bravo
Known for	Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen; The Real Housewives franchise
Education	Boston University (BS)
Children	2
Awards	Primetime Emmy Award; five Peabody Awards

Andrew Joseph Cohen (born June 2, 1968) is an American radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer. He is the host and executive producer of Bravo's late-night talk show Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and serves as executive producer of The Real Housewives franchise. Cohen also hosts a twice-weekly program with co-host John Hill on his SiriusXM channel, Radio Andy. Until 2013, he served as Bravo's executive vice president of development and talent, a role in which he was responsible for creating original content, developing formats, and identifying on-camera talent for the cable network. During his tenure as an executive, he oversaw or produced the James Beard Award–winning competition series Top Chef and the fashion competition Project Runway, among other programs. Cohen has been awarded a Primetime Emmy Award and five Peabody Awards over the course of his career. Cohen is also the author of two New York Times best-selling books, including the memoir Most Talkative.

Early Life

Cohen was born on June 2, 1968, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was raised in a Jewish household. He has spoken in interviews and in his memoir Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture about a childhood spent immersed in television and pop culture. He has cited daytime soap operas, talk shows, and morning programming as early formative influences on his eventual career as a producer and host. Cohen attended Clayton High School in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Missouri, where he was active in the student newspaper and extracurricular activities.

Cohen has been open about his identity as a gay man, and has frequently discussed the experience of coming out as a young adult in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has credited that period of self-discovery, along with his Midwestern upbringing, as shaping his on-camera persona and his interest in interviewing public figures.

Education

Cohen enrolled at Boston University, where he studied broadcast journalism. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the university's College of Communication. While in college, he completed internships at CBS News, which exposed him to the production of national news and morning programming and led to his first full-time job following graduation.

Career

Early career at CBS News

After graduating from Boston University in 1990, Cohen joined CBS News, where he spent roughly a decade working as a producer. He held production roles on programs including CBS This Morning, CBS Morning News, The Early Show, and 48 Hours. During this period he worked alongside numerous on-air journalists, including Julie Chen, with whom he has discussed his early career. Cohen's network news background gave him experience in booking guests, producing live segments, and managing field shoots — skills that he later applied to entertainment programming.

Trio and Bravo executive roles

In 2000, Cohen left CBS News to join Trio, a cable network owned by USA Networks that focused on pop culture programming. At Trio, Cohen served as vice president of original programming. When NBCUniversal acquired Trio and folded portions of its operations into Bravo in the mid-2000s, Cohen transitioned to Bravo, where he eventually became senior vice president of original programming and, later, executive vice president of development and talent.

In that capacity, Cohen oversaw the development of much of Bravo's signature unscripted slate. He served as executive producer on Top Chef, the cooking competition series that won a James Beard Award, and was involved with Project Runway during its time on Bravo, a program later recognized with a Peabody Award. He was also instrumental in the development of The Real Housewives franchise, which began with The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006 and expanded into a multi-city ensemble of series that became central to Bravo's identity. In a 2026 interview with Variety, Cohen reflected on his role in shaping the network, saying he had "bucked the system and won" by championing programming formats that initially faced skepticism within the broader television industry.

Cohen was named to Multichannel News "40 Under 40" list in recognition of his work as a cable executive. In November 2013, he stepped down from his executive role at Bravo and signed an exclusive producing deal with NBCUniversal, allowing him to focus on hosting and developing programming while retaining ties to the network.

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, commonly known as Watch What Happens Live or WWHL, launched on Bravo in 2009. Originally conceived as a short web-based companion to other Bravo programming, the show grew into a half-hour late-night talk show broadcast multiple nights per week from the network's New York "Clubhouse" set. Cohen serves as host and executive producer, interviewing two guests per episode in a loose, interactive format that incorporates viewer phone calls, social media questions, and games.

The program is notable in American late-night television for being hosted by an openly gay man and for its informal, cocktail-in-hand atmosphere. Guests have included a wide range of entertainers, politicians, and reality television personalities. In a June 2026 interview, Cohen discussed the program's longevity, attributing it to the show's flexibility, its embrace of live unpredictability, and its close relationship with Bravo's roster of unscripted talent.

The Real Housewives and reunion specials

As executive producer of The Real Housewives franchise, Cohen hosts the multi-part reunion specials that conclude each season of the various city-based series. The reunions, recorded on a single set with the full cast and Cohen in a moderator role, have become defining events for the franchise and are routinely among Bravo's highest-rated programming.

In 2026, Cohen spoke publicly about the emotional toll of producing the Summer House reunion, describing it as "elevated and intense" and detailing the on-set dynamics among the cast. Comments Cohen made during and after the reunion taping became the subject of follow-up coverage and dispute, including a public disagreement with cast member Lindsay Hubbard about the duration that another cast member had spent off-stage. In his 2026 Variety interview, Cohen also characterized The Real Housewives as a feminist program, arguing that it centers women's professional and personal lives in ways uncommon for mainstream unscripted television.

Other television hosting

Cohen co-hosted the Miss Universe pageant for several years. In 2013, he publicly withdrew from co-hosting the pageant in Russia, citing the country's recently enacted anti-gay legislation. He has also hosted a revival of the syndicated dating series Love Connection.

Beginning in the late 2010s, Cohen co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve Live broadcast with Anderson Cooper, a partnership that became an annual television fixture. In 2026, Deadline reported that CNN had also tapped the pair to host Independence Eve Live, a Fourth of July special expanding their on-air collaboration beyond New Year's.

Radio Andy

In September 2015, SiriusXM announced the launch of Radio Andy, a satellite radio channel curated by Cohen. The channel features Cohen's own twice-weekly program with co-host John Hill, as well as shows hosted by personalities Cohen selected.

Writing and publishing

Cohen is the author of the memoir Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture, published in 2012, and the diary-style follow-up The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year, published in 2014. The Andy Cohen Diaries appeared on The New York Times best-seller list following its release. He has continued to publish diary-format books at intervals since.

Other appearances

Cohen has made cameo appearances in entertainment projects outside his Bravo work, including an appearance in Lady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y." in 2014. He was also involved in the revival of HBO's The Comeback in 2014, in a behind-the-scenes capacity related to the show's return.

Personal Life

Cohen is openly gay and has spoken publicly about his experience as one of the few openly gay hosts in American late-night television. In February 2019, he announced the birth of his first child, a son, via surrogate. He welcomed a second child, a daughter, by surrogate in 2022. He is raising both children as a single father and has discussed parenthood on his radio and television programs.

Cohen is a longtime resident of New York City, where Watch What Happens Live is taped and where he has lived for much of his adult life. In June 2026, he was photographed in New York holding hands with businessman Kevin Sobieski during his 58th birthday celebration, prompting press coverage of the relationship. Cohen is a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and has frequently referenced his Midwestern roots on air.

Recognition

Cohen has received a Primetime Emmy Award and five Peabody Awards over the course of his career. The Peabody Awards include recognition for series he produced or oversaw at Bravo, including Project Runway.

He was named to Multichannel News "40 Under 40" list of cable industry executives during his time as a Bravo programmer. Out magazine has included Cohen on its annual "Power 50" / "Power List" ranking of influential LGBT figures in multiple years, including 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2012, GQ included him on its "25 Most Stylish Men" list.

His books Most Talkative and The Andy Cohen Diaries both appeared on The New York Times best-seller lists following their publication.

Legacy

Cohen's tenure at Bravo, first as an executive and later as on-air talent and producer, has been credited with shaping the modern American unscripted television landscape. The Real Housewives franchise, which he helped develop and continues to produce, expanded from a single Orange County–based series in 2006 into an interconnected slate of city-based ensembles whose casts and catchphrases have entered broader popular culture. Reunion specials hosted by Cohen have become a recurring fixture of cable television and a template imitated by other unscripted franchises.

Watch What Happens Live, launched in 2009, made Cohen the first openly gay host of an American late-night talk show on a major network or major cable channel. The program's interactive, low-budget format — built around viewer calls, in-studio games, and unfiltered guest conversation — has been cited in industry coverage as an influence on a generation of digital-first and social-media-driven entertainment programming.

Cohen's public stand against hosting Miss Universe in Russia in 2013, citing the country's anti-gay legislation, brought attention to the intersection of entertainment programming and LGBTQ rights and was covered by mainstream press, including The New York Times. His annual co-hosting of CNN's New Year's Eve Live with Anderson Cooper, and the 2026 expansion of that partnership to a Fourth of July broadcast, have established Cohen as a fixture of American holiday television beyond the cable entertainment world.

In his June 2026 Variety cover interview, Cohen reflected on his role in shaping reality television, characterizing the genre's prominence as a vindication of programming choices that had once been dismissed within the industry. A long-form profile published in Vulture in May 2026 surveyed Cohen's two-decade reshaping of Bravo and his influence on the broader unscripted television ecosystem.