Gibbons, Leeza

Television-radio host, producer. Gibbons was born in Hartsville on March 26, 1957, the daughter of Carlos and Jean Gibbons. Raised in Irmo, she attended the University of South Carolina and graduated magna cum laude in 1982 with a degree in journalism.

Gibbons entered broadcast journalism as a host of PM Magazine in Dallas and Beaumont, Texas. She also worked as a reporter-anchor in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and was on National Public Radio in Columbia. After cohosting WCBS-TV’s Two on the Town in New York City, Gibbons entered the national spotlight in 1984 as a reporter-anchor on Entertainment Tonight, a nationally syndicated television program. Later Gibbons became executive producer of her own program, Leeza, which ran from 1994 to 2000 on NBC. She was nominated for both Outstanding Talk Show and Outstanding Talk Show Host during every year of eligibility. Leeza received twenty-seven Daytime Emmy Nominations and won three. Gibbons has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1994 Gibbons formed Leeza Gibbons Enterprises (LGE) to develop and produce special projects such as “Assignment E! with Leeza Gibbons” and the Emmy-winning “Teen Files.” She also hosted the syndicated radio program Hollywood Confidential, which was featured on more than 125 stations.

Gibbons has been particularly active in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted her mother, and founded the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation. Gibbons received the Congressional Horizon Award for her crusade on children’s issues and the University of South Carolina Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1992. She was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto.

Gibbons has been married three times. Marriages to John Hicks in 1980 and Christopher Quinten in 1988 each ended in divorce. In 1991 she married actor-architect Stephen Meadows. She has three children.