Lester Holt

Lester Holt is one of the most recognized broadcast journalists in America. Born in 1959 in Marin County, California, with an African American father and a mother of Jamaican descent, he dropped out of California State University in 1979 to take a job at a San Francisco radio station. That decision launched a career that would eventually place him behind the desk of the most-watched nightly newscast in the country.

Holt spent nearly two decades at CBS, beginning as a reporter for WCBS-TV in New York City, then working as a reporter and anchor at the Los Angeles CBS affiliate KNXT before returning to WCBS. In 2000 he moved to NBC, where he anchored at MSNBC and became a substitute anchor for both NBC Nightly News and the Today show.

In 2003 he became co-anchor of Weekend Today, and in 2007 he was named full-time weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News. In February 2015 he was appointed interim anchor of the weekday newscast after permanent anchor Brian Williams was suspended, and in June of that year he was named the permanent anchor and managing editor. He was the first Black person to solo anchor a weekday network nightly newscast.

Across his decade leading NBC Nightly News (2015-2025), Holt covered the defining events of the era: the political rise of Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza, and the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. He also traveled to Iran for an exclusive interview with President Masoud Pezeshkian. In 2016 he moderated the first general-election presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Holt has been the principal anchor of Dateline NBC since 2011, a role he took on full-time after stepping down from NBC Nightly News on May 30, 2025. In his final broadcast he signed off with his signature line: "Please take care of yourself, and each other, and I'll do the same."

Away from the anchor desk, Holt is an accomplished bass guitarist who plays blues and rock music, occasionally performing with bands at charity events. He has received numerous honors, including the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and he has been a longtime advocate of getting reporters out of the studio and into communities, most visibly through the "Lester Holt: Across America" reporting series.