Brianna Keilar
Keilar in 2023
Born	Brianna Marie Keilar ( 1980-09-21 ) September 21, 1980 (age 43) Canberra , Australia
Nationality	American
Education	University of California, Berkeley ( BA )
Spouses	Dave French ​ ​ ( m.  2009; div.  2011) ​ Fernando Lujan ​ ( m.  2016) ​
Children	1

Brianna Marie Keilar (born September 21, 1980) is an American journalist who currently serves as a co-anchor of the afternoon edition of CNN News Central . ^[1] She previously worked as a White House correspondent , senior political correspondent, Congressional correspondent and general assignment correspondent for CNN in Washington. Prior to that, Keilar worked at CNN Newsource as a national correspondent, also in Washington. Before joining New Day , she was the host of CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar . ^[2]

Early life and education [ edit ]

Keilar was born in Canberra , Australian Capital Territory , Australia. Her father Glenn is Australian, and her mother Miriam was American. The Keilars were stationed in Australia at the time of Brianna's birth. ^[3] In 1982, Keilar and her family moved to the United States and settled in Orange County, California . Keilar graduated from Mission Viejo High School in 1998, where she was voted homecoming queen in her senior year. Keilar then attended the University of California, Berkeley , from which she graduated in 2001 with dual bachelor's degrees in mass communications and psychology. ^[4]

Career [ edit ]

Keilar began her on-air career in Yakima, Washington , at the CBS affiliate KIMA . She also co-hosted the morning drivetime show Billy, Blue and Brianna, too: The Morning Zoo on contemporary hits station, KFFM . ^[5] She then moved to CBS News , where she served as an anchor, reporter and producer for a CBS newscast that aired on MTVU , MTV's college network. She was also a fill-in anchor on the CBS News overnight newscast, Up to the Minute , and a freelance reporter for the weekend edition of CBS Evening News .

From CBS, Keilar joined CNN as a correspondent for CNN Newsource, providing breaking news coverage and reports from the nation's capital for approximately 800 CNN Newsource partner stations. As a general assignment correspondent for the network, she covered a wide range of stories, including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre , where she was the first CNN correspondent at the scene. ^[6]

While covering Congress, Keilar earned the 2009 National Press Foundation Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress for her fall 2008 coverage of the $700 billion bank bailout. ^[7] While covering the Obama White House, Keilar earned the White House Correspondents' Association 's 2014 Aldo Beckman Memorial Award for her coverage of the rollout of Obamacare. ^[8]

Keilar, a military spouse, began writing a column called Home Front in 2019, which tells stories of military families and tries to bridge the civilian-military divide. ^{[9] [10]}

Keilar joined New Day in 2021, co-anchoring with John Berman . On September 15, 2022, it was announced that Keilar would leave her role on New Day as the show is replaced by CNN This Morning . She continued to co-anchor the show until the new CNN revamped morning show debuted on November 1. ^[11]

In April 2023, Keilar joined Boris Sanchez and Jim Sciutto as a co-anchor of a new show titled CNN News Central . She co-anchors the afternoon edition which runs from 1 p.m. through 4 p.m. ^[12]

Personal life [ edit ]

Keilar married Dave French on May 2, 2009. ^[13] They later divorced. In July 2016, Keilar announced that she was engaged to Fernando Lujan, an active duty Green Beret ^[14] who was then a director on the National Security Council at the White House. ^[15] During CNN's New Year's Eve Live on December 31, 2016, Brooke Baldwin announced that Keilar and Lujan had married the previous evening in Las Vegas. ^[16] She gave birth to a boy on June 8, 2018. ^[17]

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• CNN profile