• Mika Brzezinski is an American journalist, talk-show host, and political commentator.
• She is known for anchoring the MSBC show “Morning Joe”.
• Mika has two daughters with her former husband James Patrick Hoffer and is married to her co-host Joe Scarborough.
• Her net worth is estimated at over $20 million.
• Mika enjoys traveling and watching movies in her free time.



Known for movies

Short Info

Date Of BirthMay 2, 1967
SpouseJim Hoffer
FactHer mother, Emilie, is an artist who carves wood sculptures from trees.


Who is Mika Brzezinski?

Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough was born in New York City, USA on 2 May 1967 – her zodiac sign is Taurus, and she holds American nationality. She’s a journalist, author, talk-show host, and liberal political commentator, who’s perhaps known best for hosting the news and talk show “Morning Joe”, which airs on the American news-based pay TV cable channel MSNBC.

Early life and education

Mika was raised in New York City alongside her brothers Mark and Ian Brzezinski, by their father Zbigniew Brzezinski, who’s a foreign policy expert and former National Security Advisor, and their mother Emilie Anna Benesova who’s a sculptor; Emilie is a grandniece of Edvard Benes, former president of Czechoslovakia.

Mika’s brother Mark is a diplomat who served as the US Ambassador to Sweden between 2011 and 2015, while he’s today the US Ambassador to Poland; her brother Ian is a military expert.

Born into a family of successful and academically educated people, Mika was urged by her parents from a very early age to focus on her education, so that she could one day pursue a college degree. She was highly active while attending Madeira School, as she wrote articles for the school newspapers, helped organize many events at Madeira and was also into acting, playing supporting characters in a couple of school plays.

Upon matriculating in 1985, Mika enrolled at Georgetown University, transferred to Williams College in 1987, and two years later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

Career as a journalist

Mika launched her career in 1990, when hired to work on the ABC’s news show “America This Morning”. The following year saw her move to the Fox-affiliated TV station WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut, where she became their general assignments reporter in only a year.

In 1992, Mika began working at the CBS-affiliated TV station WFSB, and it took her three years to become the anchor of their weekday morning news show. She quit WFSB in 1997 when offered a job at CBS News, where Mika worked as the anchor of their news show “CBS Overnight News”.

She took a break from CBS News in the first half of 2001, and spent some time working at MSNBC, hosting their weekday show “Home Page” together with Ashleigh Banfield and Gina Gaston. Mika returned to CBS News in September 2001 and worked as their desk correspondent, while she gained recognition in the same month, when she broadcast live following the 9/11 attacks. She spent the following five years working as a CBS News anchor and correspondent, then left at the end of 2006.

On 26 January 2007, Mika joined MSNBC and began hosting their news update show “Up to the Minute”. She then hosted their primetime newsbreaks show, and occasionally reported for “NBC Nightly News”; Mika could also have been seen occasionally anchoring the show “Weekend Today”.

After having been offered to co-host “Morning Joe”, she chose to resign from all other shows.

Controversies

On 26 June 2007, not long after Mika began co-hosting “Morning Joe”, her producer Andy Jones pushed her to cover the story about Paris Hilton’s release from jail, while Mika believed that it was more important to cover the discussion over the Iraq War between the former US President George Bush and the former US Senator Richard Lugar. Annoyed by this ‘trivial journalism’, as Mika has described it, she tried to burn the Paris Hilton story’s script while live on air, but was prevented by her co-host Geist; she then tore up the script, and later ran a second copy of the script through a paper shredder.

Image source

Mika’s actions were supported by most of her viewers, who preferred ‘hard’ over ‘entertainment’ news, and she received a lot of fan mail.

It was revealed in 2016 that the chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had sent e-mails to the political director of NBC News Chuck Todd, asking him to ‘stop Mika from criticizing the DNC’s treatment of Bernie Sanders’.

On 15 February 2017, Mika had banned Donald Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway from appearing in “Morning Joe”, claiming that she wasn’t briefed, and didn’t really know what was going on at any given moment. Mika’s actions were supported by her fans, as well as the “Washington Post” columnist Jennifer Rubin.

In March 2017, Mika and her husband Joe Scarborough referred to Donald Trump’s presidency as ‘fake and failed’, and he then unfollowed both of them on Twitter. As a response to this, in June 2017, Donald tweeted that Mika was ‘low I.Q. Crazy’ and that she was ‘bleeding badly from a face-lift’. Not long after this, Mika and her husband revealed that the White House was threatening to expose them in a tabloid magazine unless they were to publicly apologize for offending the then president Donald Trump.

On 20 May 2020, Mika spoke against Donald Trump in her show “Morning Joe”, criticizing him for claiming that her husband Joe had something to do with the death of Lori Klausutis, who died in July 2001 after having lost consciousness and hit her head when falling; Mika called Donald ‘a sick person’, and accused him of putting the Klausutis family through all that all again.

Lori’s husband Timothy supported Mika, and sent e-mails to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, asking for Donald Trump’s tweets about his late wife to be removed from the social media network.

Husband and children

On 23 October 1993, Mika exchanged vows with the American TV news reporter James Patrick Hoffer, who’s today working for the TV station WABC; the two met while they were both working at WTIC. Mika and James have two daughters together, named Emilie and Carlie Hoffer.

The two divorced in 2016, and this was widely believed to be because James had accused Mika of cheating on him with the American TV show host and lawyer Joe Scarborough, an affair which had apparently been going on since 2010.

In 2017, Mika became engaged to Joe, and they exchanged vows on 24 November 2018, in a private ceremony attended by only the closest of their friends and family members; the ceremony was officiated by the American politician Elijah Eugene Cummings.

As of March 2022, Mika’s married to her second husband Joe Scarborough, and has two daughters with her first husband James Patrick Hoffer.

Hobbies and interesting facts

Mika’s an author, and published her memoir “All Things at Once” in January 2010, while her second book “Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You’re Worth” followed in 2011; her third and most recent book “Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction and My Own” was published in 2012.

Mika’s quite active on Instagram, and seems to be enjoying the attention which she’s receiving from her more than 150,000 followers.

She’s uploaded over 1,000 pictures onto the network, most of which have been taken during her everyday life.

She’s passionate about travelling, and her career has taken her all around the world; Mika’s favorite city to travel to seems to be London, England.

She enjoys watching movies late at night – her favorite actor and actress are Jim Carrey and Natalie Portman, while a couple of her favorite movies include “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective – When Nature Calls”, “Bruce Almighty” and “Liar Liar”.

Age, height and net worth

Mika’s age is 54. She has long blonde hair and brown eyes, her height is 5ft 5ins (1.65m) and she weighs around 120lbs (55kgs).

As of March 2022, her net worth has been estimated at more than $20 million, while her husband Joe’s net worth is reputedly more than $25 million.

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General Info

Full NameMika Brzezinski
Date Of BirthMay 2, 1967
Height1.65 m
ProfessionJournalist, Television presenter, Newscaster
EducationWilliams College
NationalityAmerican

Family

SpouseJim Hoffer
ChildrenEmilie Hoffer, Carlie Hoffer
ParentsZbigniew Brzezinski, Emilie Benes Brzezinski
SiblingsIan Brzezinski, Mark Brzezinski

Accomplishments

NominationsNews & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis, James Beard Award for Television Segment, News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast
TV ShowsMorning Joe, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, CBS Overnight News

Social profile links

Facts

#Fact
1Sister of Ian Brzezinski and Mark Brzezinski.
2Sister-in-law of Joelene Brzezinski.
3Her mother, Emilie, is an artist who carves wood sculptures from trees.
4Mother of daughters Emilie, 12, and Carlie, 10 (2008).
5Daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National security advisor to US president Jimmy Carter, and Emilie Brzezinski.
6Attracted worldwide attention when she refused to air a story about Paris Hilton's release from jail on MSNBC because her producer had consistently put the story as the lead (26 June 2007).
7American news journalist and anchorwoman, who has worked for several TV networks since 1990.

Movies

Actress

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Donny!2015TV SeriesMika Brzezinski
The Jim Gaffigan Show2015TV SeriesMika Brzezinski
Pitch Perfect 22015Morning Joe Host
1600 Penn2013TV SeriesMika Brzezinski
The Campaign2012Mika Brzezinski
I Don't Know How She Does It2011Mika Brzezinski
Outlaw2010TV SeriesMorning Joe Host #2

Thanks

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Mile High: How to Win... and Lose... the White House2009Documentary thanks

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Morning Joe2008-2017TV SeriesHerself - Co-Host / Herself - Hostess / Herself - Co-Hostess / ...
Late Night with Seth Meyers2015-2017TV SeriesHerself
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth2016TV Series documentaryHerself - Co-Hostess, Morning Joe
MSNBC Live2015TV SeriesHerself - Host
The Daily Show2015TV SeriesHerself
On the Money2015TV SeriesHerself - Co-Hostess, Morning Joe
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton2015TV SeriesHerself
The View2013-2015TV SeriesHerself / Herself - Author
PoliticKING with Larry King2015TV SeriesHerself - Guest
Today2013-2015TV SeriesHerself - Guest / Herself
Alpha House2014TV SeriesHerself
The Insider2013TV SeriesHerself
Late Show with David Letterman2012TV SeriesHerself - Guest
Meet the Press2012TV SeriesHerself - MSNBC
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit2011TV SeriesHerself
Top Chef2010TV SeriesHerself
Curb: The Discussion2010TV SeriesHerself
Charlie Rose2010TV SeriesHerself - Guest
Lions for Lambs2007Herself / Radio anchor (voice, uncredited)
60 Minutes Wednesday2005TV Series documentaryHerself - Correspondent (segment "Shadow Divers")
CBS News Sunday Morning2005TV SeriesHerself - Correspondent (segment "Think Big")
CBS News Up to the Minute1992TV SeriesHerself - Co-Anchor (1997-2000)

Archive Footage

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Paris Hilton Inc.: The Selling of Celebrity2007TV Movie documentaryHerself
Media Buzz2014-2017TV SeriesHerself - Co-Hostess, Morning Joe / Herself / Herself - MSNBC Anchor
Watters' World2017TV SeriesHerself - Co-Hostess, Morning Joe
Inside Edition2014-2016TV Series documentaryHerself - Co-Hostess, Morning Joe / Herself
Entertainment Tonight2016TV SeriesHerself
Extra2015TV SeriesHerself
The Insider2015TV SeriesHerself
Miss Representation2011DocumentaryHerself - MSNBC
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno2010TV SeriesHerself
The Cartel2009DocumentaryHerself

Awards

Nominated Awards

YearAwardCeremonyNominationMovie
2013EmmyNews & Documentary Emmy AwardsOutstanding News Discussion & AnalysisMorning Joe (2007)

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia
Author

Benjy is currently a reporter for BiographyPedia based in Adelaide, Australia. Prior to joining BiographyPedia in July 2019, he was a Bizarre TV reporter and theatre critic at TheSun. Benjy has also written for DailyMail and TMZ. Benjy studied journalism at Goldsmiths University of London, graduating in 2009. You can contact him at [email protected].

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