Who

Curry is the news anchor on the Today Show and a host of Dateline NBC.

Backstory

Curry was born in Guam: Her Japanese mother met her American serviceman father during the U.S. occupation of Japan after WWII. Raised in Oregon, Curry started out in broadcasting in the small town of Medford, where she became KTVL's first female news reporter. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1984, she joined KCBS as a reporter, and remained there for six years until moving to NBC News as a Chicago-based correspondent. In 1992, she started anchoring NBC News at Sunrise—the show that precedes the Today Show—and occasionally got to fill in as a replacement on Today. When Matt Lauer was promoted to co-anchor in 1997 following Bryant Gumbel's defection to CBS, Curry replaced Lauer as news anchor. Curry has two gigs at the network these days: In addition to her Today duties, she also works the child-molester-nabbing beat as a host of Dateline NBC.

Of note

Curry's landed some big gets over the years. In 2006 the two-time Emmy winner surprised many in the biz when she scored a sit-down with the president of Sudan—the man responsible for the catastrophe in Darfur—who hadn't deigned to accept a TV interview in three years. (She made the trip to the Sudan with Times bleeding-heart Nick Kristof.) But while she's a seasoned reporter, Curry has never had the bubbly on-camera personality that news execs expect of a "morning personality," which is why NBC honchos reportedly passed over her for the co-anchor job when Katie Couric resigned in 2006. (The View's Meredith Vieira got the gig instead.) Curry, not surprisingly, was "disappointed," according to news reports. "Perfecting the art of the also-ran, the Jan Brady of news readers braves indignities large (being passed over for Katie Couric's job) and larger (being made to host To Catch a Predator)," wrote one columnist. At least she can remove the "co-" from the Dateline entry on her resume. In May 2007 NBC cut Stone Phillips loose, which leaves her solely responsible for the taxing task of recording 30-second introductions to Chris Hanson's Predator series.

On the job

Curry claims to enjoy her job's grueling travel schedule, but an easy life it most assuredly isn't. On assignment in one third-world country—Curry says she doesn't recall which one—she picked up a parasite and lost 15 pounds as a result. She also contracted a case of dysentery while reporting in Liberia.

Personal

Curry and her husband, Brian Ross (he's a software exec—not the ABC News correspondent by the same name), have a daughter named McKenzie and a son named Walker. Curry and Ross own a four-story Upper West Side townhouse that they purchased for $2.3 million in 2003. In August 2006, three of Curry's neighbors sued her for $900,000, claiming she had damaged their homes while renovating her own.