| Michael Cogdill | |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Asheville, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Education: | North Buncombe High School University of North Carolina at Asheville (BA) |
| Occupation: | Journalist Anchor Novelist Screenwriter Film producer |
| Spouse: | Danette Luanne Cogdill |
| Website: | https://michaelcogdill.wordpress.com/ |
Michael Cogdill (born George Michael Cogdill, June 11, 1961) is an American journalist, anchor, novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. His work as a journalist has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN, and is the recipient of 32 Emmys and a Edward R. Murrow Award.[1]
Cogdill was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of a truck driver and a mill worker. His earliest jobs included mowing lawns, cleaning horse stalls, and working as a production assistant on film sets.[2] He graduated from North Buncombe High School in Weaverville, North Carolina in 1979 and then graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1984, earning a BA degree in communications.[3]
Two weeks after college graduation, Cogdill began his career in television, working at WECT, an NBC affiliate in Wilmington, North Carolina. He soon moved over to WWAY, Wilmington's ABC station,[4] and later migrated to CBS-aligned WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia. He finally landed at Greenville, South Carolina station WYFF (an NBC affiliate) in 1989, where he cemented his position as arguably the most decorated anchorman in South Carolina history.[5]
Cogdill first rose to prominence when he reported on the story of Susan Smith, a Union, South Carolina woman convicted of murdering her two young sons in 1994 (after initially claiming that an African-American man had carjacked her and kidnapped the children). Cogdill’s Susan Smith: A Question of Justice (1996) garnered an Emmy, leading to appearances on NBC's Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN.[6] [7]
Cogdill is the author of She-Rain, a novel set in rural western North Carolina in the 1920s.[8]
In 2014 it was announced that filmmaker Richard O'Sullivan had plans to develop She-Rain into a feature film with Cogdill's production company HeartStrong Media serving as a producing partner.[9]
In addition to winning the Edward R. Murrow Award and 30 Emmys, Cogdill has received the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Star Award, a South Carolina Television Journalist Award, and has been a multiple winner of the Radio and Television News Director Association of the Carolinas Award.[10]