Anderson Cooper's Real Name: Anderson Hays Cooper

Quick answer: Anderson Cooper's documented full name is Anderson Hays Cooper. Encyclopaedia Britannica lists that form as also known as and dates his birth to June 3, 1967, in New York City. Encyclopedia.com independently records the same full name, date, and city (Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

He is known professionally as Anderson Cooper. Both sources agree that he was born June 3, 1967, in New York City and that he later studied at Yale. Encyclopedia.com says he earned a B.A. in 1989; Britannica's narrative also dates a political-science bachelor's degree to 1989, though a "Meet Anderson Cooper" box on the same Britannica page uses 1990. After Yale, Encyclopedia.com says, he interned at the CIA, attended the University of Hanoi, and in 1991 became a fact checker at Channel One, a news program for high-school students. Britannica places him at Channel One after the 1989 degree.

Career highlights

Britannica names his father as the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and says that while at Channel One he forged a press pass, traveled to Southeast Asia, and self-produced coverage of political turmoil in Myanmar; Channel One later aired the pieces and made him chief international correspondent. He joined ABC as a reporter in 1994 and eventually coanchored World News Now. In 2000 he left daily news to host ABC's The Mole, then returned in 2001 as a CNN reporter; Britannica dates Anderson Cooper 360° to 2003. Encyclopedia.com independently dates the CNN arrival to 2001, after ABC, and lists a later 60 Minutes Wednesday contributor role. Britannica highlights his 2005 Hurricane Katrina reporting, 2010 coverage of the Haiti earthquake (for which he was honored by the Haitian government), and his moderating of a 2016 presidential debate. While at CNN he became a 60 Minutes correspondent in 2007, hosted the syndicated daytime show Anderson (later Anderson Live) from 2011 to 2013, and published Dispatches from the Edge (2006), The Rainbow Comes and Goes (2016, with his mother), and Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty (2021). He also hosted the podcast All There Is.

Later news-work notes

Britannica records that he was a longtime correspondent for 60 Minutes. Reuters reported on February 16, 2026, that he was leaving the program after nearly two decades, and the Los Angeles Times reported that his final 60 Minutes appearance aired on May 17, 2026. He continued his CNN work, including Anderson Cooper 360° (Reuters; Los Angeles Times).

Name notes for searchers

Anderson Hays Cooper is the documented full name; the professional name is Anderson Cooper. Searchers looking for the host of Anderson Cooper 360° or for CNN's prime-time coverage of major news events are usually aiming at the same person.