Alex Wagner is an American political commentator and journalist. Starting out her career as the cultural correspondent for the Center for American Progress, Wagner has gone on to work for big names like MSNBC, CBS, and Showtime. Her journey to the top as well as her personal life is quite an interesting one…
Alex Wagner Bio (Parents)
She was born Alexandra Swe Wagner on December 4, 1977, in Washington D.C where she was also raised by her parents as a Roman Catholic. From her mother Tin Swe Thant’s side, Alex is of Burmese descent. Thant immigrated from Rangoon, Myanmar to the United States. Alex’s dad Carl Wagner is an American from Iowa. His roots include German and Irish.
Carl Wagner has been long involved in politics as a field director and consultant. A Democrat, he has worked on the presidential campaign teams of Ted Kennedy (1980) and Bill Clinton.
Alex attended Woodrow Wilson High School, after which she proceeded to Brown University graduating in 1999 with a degree in art history and literature, although she had initially wanted to study Egyptology.
After school, Alex had longed to work for Ray Gun, an LA-based musical journal. However, through an old neighbor John Podesta, who worked as a White House adviser, Alex was able to land a job with New York’s Center for American Progress as a cultural correspondent. Wagner got her dream of working on a publication when she was hired by the music magazine Fader where she worked as their editor-in-chief from 2003 to 2007.
From then on, things only got better for Wagner. Next, she was employed by Hollywood ace actor George Clooney who brought her on his anti-genocide advocacy organization, Not On Our Watch Project to work as the executive director. The organization focused on human rights violations.
Wagner’s first job as a correspondent was with AOL’s Political Daily where she worked as the White House correspondent during Obama‘s regime. After AOL acquired Huffington Post, Wagner switched boats.
Her White House job had attracted the attention of MSNBC’s president Phil Griffin who offered her a chance to host her own show on his network. Wagner gladly accepted and began hosting a weekday program, Now with Alex Wagner from November 2011. She left after about 3 and a half years when the show was canceled as part of the network’s revamping process. The show received an Emmy nomination.
Wagner’s next job was as a senior editor for The Atlantic Magazine, a role she assumed in April 2016. Simultaneously, she also worked with The Atlantic Studios on TV projects. Wagner was in November 2016 called to replace Vinita Nair on CBS This Morning Saturday. After two years on the program, she left (but still works as a CBS correspondent) to replace disgraced Mark Halperin on Showtime’s The Circus. Halperin was axed from the show following multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Wagner’s first book FUTUREFACE which examines questions about American identity in the 21 century was released in 2018.
Married/Husband, Kids
Alex Wagner is married to former White House chef for the Obama’s Sam Kass. Kass took notice of her when she began attending White House events. She was working with MSNBC at the time. Kass made his move by asking his friend Richard Wolffe, an MSNBC commentator, to invite him to the MSNBC after-party so he could introduce him to Wagner.
His friend did but told him he stood no chance with her. He was wrong. Wagner and Kass hit things off really quickly after their first date where they discovered many similarities between them like the fact that they were both Washington Nationals fans.
News of their romance got to The Washington Post who reported it in August 2013. About a month later, the two were engaged. They got married on August 30, 2014, in Pocantico Hills, New York at a restaurant called, Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
The then-POTUS Barrack Obama alongside his wife Michelle and daughters attended the ceremony.
Sam Kass who was born in 1980 knew Michelle Obama from Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood where he was raised. Around when Obama was running for president, a busy Michelle employed Kass to work in her kitchen. Kass became like a big brother to Sasha and Malia Obama. Making Kass even closer to the Obamas was the fact that his dad Robert taught Malia during her 5th grade at the private school University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
In addition to cooking for the Obamas, Kass was also employed to work as Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy. He left the White House by the end of 2014 and in 2015 he was employed by NBC as a senior food analyst.
On July 21, 2017, Wagner and Kass welcomed their first kid, a son named Cy Kass.
Net Worth
Alex Wagner has been very successful in her career. With an annual salary averaging $600,000, her net worth is estimated at $3 million.
