Elise Hu | |
---|---|
Born | February 17, 1982 |
Education | University of Missouri |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, writer |
Years active | 2002-present |
Employer(s) | TED, National Public Radio, Vice News |
Spouse | Matt Stiles (div. 2021) |
Children | 3 |
Elise Hu is an American broadcast journalist who hosts the TED Talks Daily podcast [1] and serves as host-at-large for NPR. [2] From 2015 to 2018, she was the network's first Seoul, South Korea, bureau chief. [3]
Hu was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Chinese-American immigrants, and grew up in suburban Missouri and Texas. [4] She graduated from Plano Senior High School in Plano, Texas. During high school, she and friends were paid $100 each to appear in national 7-Up advertisements, after which agents scouted Hu to work as a model for a few years into college. [5] She interned at WFAA-TV in Dallas [6] before earning a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. [7]
She was married to Matt Stiles, a reporter, with whom she has three daughters. [8] [9] She speaks Mandarin Chinese. [4]
Hu began her career as a television reporter for stations including KWTX-TV, [10] KVUE-TV and WYFF-TV, and then was among the founding journalists at the Texas Tribune, a digital news startup. [11]
She joined NPR in 2011 and opened the Seoul bureau in early 2015, where she oversaw coverage of South Korea, North Korea and Japan. [12] She hosted video series on NPR named "Elise Tries," [13] which received a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, [14] and "Future You, With Elise Hu." [15] As of 2020, she is host-at-large based at NPR West, filling in on programs such as "It's Been a Minute"; [16] correspondent for Vice News; [17] and co-founder of the podcast production company Reasonable Volume. [18]
Her reporting has been honored with a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Video, [19] a Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism, [20] beat reporting awards [21] from the Texas Associated Press. The Austin Chronicle twice named her "Best of Austin" for reporting and social media work. [22]
Hu is a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, [16] a director on the Grist.org board, [23] and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. [24] She previously served as a guest co-anchor on Tech News Today on TWIT, [25] an adjunct instructor for Georgetown University [26] and an adviser and blogger for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Her book, Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital was published by E.P. Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in May 2023. [27] It explores South Korea's global influence in beauty and how a digital society narrows global appearance ideals. [28]