Ashleigh Banfield is an Emmy Award winning international television news
correspondent and host who has reported breaking news from across the country
and around the globe.
Banfield is currently anchoring and hosting three programs on the newly named
TruTV (formerly Court TV). She, along with Jack Ford, is the co-host of a two
hour live daily legal news program called Banfield and Ford: Courtside, a
program that has earned her a Telly Award. She hosts a weekly evening show
called Hollywood Heat, and is the Creator, Co-Producer and Host of the hugely
successful prime time special series called Disorder in the Court.
Banfield covered the terrorist attacks of September 11, reporting live from the
World Trade Center in New York City, work which earned her EMMY Award
recognition. After eight consecutive days at Ground Zero, Banfield departed for
Islamabad, Pakistan to begin covering the War on Terror. From September 2001 to
January 2004, she reported live from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq,
England, Israel (West Bank and Gaza), Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
She anchored several prime time series including "A Region In Conflict" and
"Ashleigh Banfield: On Location" in which she hosted live programs from
locations across the country and around the globe, covering breaking news
stories including the wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq, the conflict in Israel and
the abduction of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City.
As a correspondent for NBC News, Banfield appeared on the programs "The Today
Show," "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," and "Dateline." While anchoring on
MSNBC, Banfield covered stories including the crash of the Concorde on location
in France, the 2000 Election, traveling with the Bush/Cheney Campaign, and the
2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
Her most noted interviews include Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud
Barak and Shimon Peres, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minster Tariq Aziz,
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade Masked Terrorists,
Saudi Prince Al Faisal, Laura Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary
Clinton, Martha Stewart, John McCain, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jane Fonda, Ben
Stiller, Rosie O'Donnell, Donald Trump, and Hugh Grant.
Prior to joining MSNBC, Banfield served as the 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. news anchor
for KDFW-TV, the FOX station in Dallas. While there, she received her first
EMMY Award for "Best News Anchor" for her coverage on "Cadet Killers" and a
Texas Associated Press Award for the "Best Series" category on the
controversial "To Serve and Survive." Prior to that, Banfield worked at
Canada's CICT-TV, as a producer from 1992-93 and from 1993-95 as their evening
news anchor and business correspondent. In 1994, Banfield earned two IRIS
awards for the "Best News Documentary" and "Best of Festival" categories where
she chronicled the life of a homeless man.
Before, and during, her tenure at CICT-TV, Banfield freelanced as an associate
producer for ABC's "World News Tonight," where she covered the 1991
Bush/Gorbachev Summit in Russia and the 1992 Clinton/Yeltsin Summit in
Vancouver.
In 1988, Banfield began her career at CJBN in Kenora, Ontario, Canada as a
photographer/researcher/reporter and then later moved to Winnipeg's CKY station
as a researcher/reporter for their evening news. From 1989 to 1992, Banfield
served as weekend evening news anchor at CFRN in Edmonton, Alberta.
In 1988, Banfield received a bachelor's degree in political studies and French
from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. In 1992, she continued her language
education in an Advanced French Studies program at the University of British
Columbia.
Banfield works in New York City but lives in Connecticut with her husband,
Howard Gould, and their sons, Jay Fischer Gould and Ridley Banfield Gould.
