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Known best for her internationally popular talk show, Oprah Winfrey is not only the Queen of Daytime TV but is also an actress, publisher, producer, and philanthropist and has a numerous accomplishments under her belt, such as the National Organization for Women’s Women of Achievement Award, Emmy for Best Talk/Service Show and Best Show, and Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s film, The Color Purple. She truly stands apart from the crowd because of all of these achievements, but the most impressive part is that she built everything from nothing.

Born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, she born out of wedlock and raised by single mother Vernita Lee and grandmother Hattie Mae. Her childhood was a difficult time for her as she lived in an inner city ghetto was a sexually abused multiple times by male relatives and family friends. She gave birth to a premature boy, who later died, when she was fourteen years old while running away from home. She then moved to Nashville with her father where she attended Tennessee State University with a full scholarship to major in performing arts and speech communications in 1971.

After college, she moved to Baltimore in 1976 and hosted People are Talking. While there, she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host A.M. Chicago and the now iconic Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986. The show grossed $125 million in its first year. Later that same year, she launched the Oprah Winfrey Network and soon after gained ownership of the show from ABC and controlled it through her own production company, HARPO Productions in 1988, the same year that she was named Broadcaster of the Year by the International Television and Radio Society. In 1989, she received the NAACP’s Entertainer of the Year Award, and would receive their Image award four times from 1989 to 1992.

She was awarded the prestigious George Foster Peabody Individual Achievement Award, an award that recognizes public service by American radio and television stations, networks, individuals, etc. in 1996 and, in 2002, became the first recipient of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. In 1991, she showed some initiative in politics by testifying before Congress for the National Child Protection Act, which was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She also donations large sums of money to charities- an estimated $300 million total- and founded Oprah’s Angel Network, which aided in education and disaster relief. In 1995, she became the first woman and African-American on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. Her current net worth is $2.9 billion.

With The Oprah Winfrey Show having come to an end in 2011, not much news about Winfrey’s activities has been heard until now, as she has announced that she will be joining CBS News’ 60 Minutes. As someone of such excellence and influence, it is very exciting to see how Oprah Winfrey will do back in action.