Rita Cosby is a renowned Emmy® winning TV host, veteran correspondent, and dynamic motivational speaker who anchored highly rated prime-time shows on FOX News Channel and NBC. She is currently a special correspondent for the top-rated CBS syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition, and frequently guest hosts some of the largest TV and radio shows in the country. She has been interviewed or profiled by hundreds of media outlets across America and overseas.

Throughout her illustrious TV career, Cosby has secured some of the biggest interviews, including exclusives with more than 20 world leaders, conducting historic back-to-back interviews with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Cosby also was granted a rare meeting with Pope John Paul II to discuss death penalty issues after receiving an exclusive letter from Timothy McVeigh explaining why he carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing.

The first reporter to see prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and witness an actual interrogation, she also interviewed Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic who called her from his prison cell at the Hague where he stood trial for war crimes. While broadcasting live from Belgrade during the NATO bombing, she broke the news that three American POWs were going to be released.

During Hurricane Katrina, she provided extensive, live coverage, hosting shows from New Orleans, revealing the widespread devastation, and soon after reported live from the war zone in Afghanistan and then along the U.S.-Mexico border. She conducted the last broadcast interview with former Crips gang leader Stanley “Tookie” Williams and was one of a few journalists present to witness his execution at San Quentin Prison. Years earlier, she spoke with convicted serial killer David Berkowitz, “The Son of Sam,” who wrote to her during the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings.

She has served as a lead reporter during several U.S. Presidential campaigns. During the Monica Lewinsky investigation, she broke the news that President Clinton was going to be subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. It was Cosby again who years earlier surprised the President as well as fellow reporters when, during a live White House press conference, she informed him that he would be subpoenaed to testify in the Whitewater trial.

Cosby also scored the only interview with the Montana Freemen during their standoff with the FBI. She covered the LA Riots, visited the Aryan Nations' compound, and interviewed the leaders of the KKK. Her investigative report inside a Tijuana, Mexico, prison exposed government corruption and allowed an American, who was held unlawfully, to be freed.

Additionally, she has conducted rare interviews with Erik Menendez and Dr. Jack Kevorkian, both behind bars. She's also interviewed numerous celebrities and sports stars, including Michael Jackson, Simon Cowell, Mike Tyson, Bruce Willis, Matt Damon, Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi, Hank Aaron, and golfer John Daly.

Prior to joining network news, Cosby was an anchor/reporter for CBS affiliates in Bakersfield, California, and Charlotte, North Carolina. During her tenure there, she broke numerous stories, reporting that Susan Smith drowned her young sons and that the father of NBA superstar Michael Jordan was murdered.

Honors for the three-time Emmy® winner include the Matrix Award, Headliner Award, and Jack Anderson Award for journalism excellence. She was also selected by Cosmopolitan magazine as a “Fun and Fearless Female.” A recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Lech Walesa Freedom Award, she hosts the National Memorial Day Parade broadcast to all US military installations around the world.

A highly sought-after keynote speaker, Cosby has talked to major groups all over America, including heads of state in Washington, D.C., ambassadors and foreign ministers at the United Nations, as well as for countless celebrity, charity, and especially military/veterans events from coast to coast. She's addressed major conferences throughout the Middle East and Europe, and even spoken to enthusiastic audiences off the coast of Antarctica.

Her first book, Blonde Ambition, was a New York Times bestseller and called “The most talked about book in America” by Extra. Her second book, Quiet Hero: Secrets from My Father's Past, is enjoying tremendous success, already hitting several bestseller lists, which include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. It is the most personal and important story of her life as she uncovered an amazing history of heroism and courage involving her own father and shares the incredible journey in this highly acclaimed and poignant memoir. As a result, her father, Richard Cosby, was awarded a special recognition by the Medal of Honor Society for his bravery. A resolution also was passed in the South Carolina Legislature honoring both Cosby and her father. The book has raised money for the USO to help wounded soldiers and their families.