September 2024

Natalie Morales is a television anchor and journalist. She serves as the first Latina host of THE TALK, CBS’ Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show highlighting current events, pop culture, family, celebrity and trending topics of the day through the eyes of five hosts, alongside Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell and Sheryl Underwood. Morales is also part of the CBS News team serving as a Los Angeles-based correspondent. Her reporting is featured across CBS News platforms including true-crime series 48 HOURS, CBS MORNINGS, CBS SUNDAY MORNING and others.

Additionally, Morales is set to host the new original crossover podcast series 48 HOURS: NCIS, where two of the most iconic brands in media join forces for a one-of-a-kind audio series that merges the award-winning journalism of one of the most celebrated true-crime news programs with the world’s No. 1 TV franchise. It will premiere on October 29, 2024.  

Prior to joining THE TALK, Morales was the West Coast anchor of NBC News’ “Today,” correspondent for “Dateline NBC” and anchor of “Behind Closed Doors with Natalie Morales.” Previously, she served as host of “Access” and co-host of “Access Live,” as well as news anchor of “Today,” where she co-hosted the show’s third hour. Morales joined “Today” in 2006 as a national correspondent and reported across all of NBCUniversal News’ platforms, including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and MSNBC. More recently in August 2022, Morales debuted as investigative reporter Talia Morgan on the CBS soap opera THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in a multi-episode arc. 

Morales contributed to several major breaking news stories, including the sexual harassment scandals, the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing and the rescue of the Chilean Miners in 2010 (coverage that was seen worldwide and recognized with a 2010 National Headliner Award). In August 2008, Morales had the exclusive jailhouse interview with the infamous Clark Rockefeller. Her other notable reports include the 2009 presidential inauguration; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005; and the election of Pope Francis in 2013. She also reported on the royal wedding in 2011 and the birth of Prince George in 2013.

As a part of the Shine a Light campaign in 2014, Morales ran in the Boston Marathon and raised over $70,000 for victims of the 2013 bombing. Morales has won three Daytime Emmy Awards as part of “Today’s” recognition as the best morning news program. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award in international journalism for her report on Honduran lobster divers for “Rock Center with Brian Williams” in June 2013. She has won three Gracie Awards, one for Outstanding Series for her “Dateline NBC” special, “My Kid Would Never,” and two for her reporting in 2016 and 2017.

Morales, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was born in Taiwan and spent much of the first 18 years of her life living overseas in Panama, Brazil and Spain as an Air Force “brat.” She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Latin American studies and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Follow her on X @nmoralestv and Instagram @nataliemoralestv.