NYWIFT Blog

We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10^th at nywift.org/muse!

#26: Charlayne Hunter-Gault

By Mellini Kantayya

Journalist and author Charlayne Hunter-Gault began her career as a reporter to The New Yorker (where she still contributes) and was the Harlem bureau chief for The New York Times in 1986, specializing in coverage of the urban black community. She spent 20 years with PBS NewsHour where she was a national and international correspondent as well as a substitute anchor. She is a former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, and the Public Broadcasting Service.

During her association with The NewsHour, Hunter-Gault won additional awards: two Emmys and a Peabody for excellence in broadcast journalism for her work on Apartheid’s People, a NewsHour series on South Africa.

She is the author of four books and spent six years as CNN’s Johannesburg bureau chief and correspondent. Amongst her many awards and accolades, Hunter-Gault holds thirty-six honorary degrees and was honored with the Washington Press Club Foundation’s Life Time Achievement Award.