Alex Wagner is an American political commentator and journalist. She began her career as a cultural correspondent for the Center for American Progress and later worked for big names like MSNBC, CBS, and Showtime. Her way to the top as well as her private life is very interesting…
Alex Wagner Bio (Parents)
She was born Alexandra Swe Wagner on December 4, 1977, in Washington D.C., where she was raised by her parents as a Roman Catholic. From the side of her mother, Tin Swe Thant, Alex is of Burmese descent. Thant immigrated to the United States from Rangoon, Myanmar. Alex’s father, Carl Wagner, is an American from Iowa. His roots are German and Irish.
Carl Wagner has long been active in politics as a field manager and advisor. As a Democrat, he has worked in the presidential campaigns of Ted Kennedy (1980) and Bill Clinton.
Alex attended Woodrow Wilson High School and then went to Brown University, where she graduated in art history and literature in 1999, although she initially wanted to study Egyptology.
After school, Alex longed to work for Ray Gun, an LA-based music magazine. However, through an old neighbor, John Podesta, who worked as a White House consultant, Alex managed to get a job as a cultural correspondent at the New York Center for American Progress. Wagner fulfilled her dream of working on a publication when she was hired by the music magazine Fader, whose editor-in-chief she was from 2003 to 2007.
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From then on things only got better for Wagner. She was next hired by Hollywood actor George Clooney, who brought her into his anti-genocide advocacy organization, Not On Our Watch Project, to work as a 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 a White House correspondent during the Obama regime. After AOL took over the Huffington Post, Wagner changed boats.
Her job at the White House had attracted the attention of MSNBC President Phil Griffin, who offered her the opportunity to host her own show on his station. Wagner gladly accepted the offer and began to host a weekday program, starting in November 2011 now with Alex Wagner. She left the station after about three and a half years when the program was canceled as part of the network’s modernization process. The show received an Emmy nomination.
Wagner’s next job was as senior editor for The Atlantic Magazine, a role she took on in April 2016. At the same time, she also worked on TV projects with The Atlantic Studios. Wagner was appointed in November 2016 to replace Vinita Nair on CBS on Saturday morning. After two years on the show, she left the show (but still works as a CBS correspondent) to replace the disgraced Mark Halperin on Showtime’s The Circus. Halperin was fired from the show after multiple sexual harassment charges.
Wagner’s first book FUTURE FACE, which deals with questions of American identity in the 21st century, was published in 2018.
Married/Husband, Kids
Alex Wagner is married to the former head chef of the White House, Sam Kass of Obama. Kass became aware of her when she began attending White House events. At that time she was working with MSNBC. Kass made his move by asking his friend Richard Wolffe, an MSNBC commentator, to invite him to the MSNBC after-party so that he could introduce him to Wagner.
His friend did so but told him that he had no chance with her. He was wrong. Wagner and Kass hit it off very quickly after their first date when they discovered many similarities between them, such as the fact that they were both fans of the Washington Nationals.
The Washington Post found out about their romance and reported about it in August 2013. About a month later, the two were engaged. They were married on August 30, 2014, in Pocantico Hills, New York, in a restaurant called Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
The then POTUS Barrack Obama attended the ceremony together with his wife Michelle and daughters.
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Sam Kass, who was born in 1980, knew Michelle Obama from the Chicago district of Hyde Park where he grew up. Around the time Obama was running for president, a busy Michelle was employing Kass to work in her kitchen. Kass became like a big brother to Sasha and Malia Obama. What brought Kass even closer to the Obamas was the fact that his father Robert Malia taught Malia in her fifth grade at the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
In addition to his work as a cook for the Obamas, Kass was also employed as Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Food Policy. He left the White House at the end of 2014 and was hired by NBC in 2015 as a senior food analyst.
On July 21, 2017, Wagner and Kass welcomed their first child, a son named Cy Kass.
Alex Wagner Net Worth
Alex Wagner has been very successful in her career. With an average annual salary of $600,000, her net worth is estimated at $3 million.