Personal

Born in September 29, 1956, Jane Velez Mitchell grew up in Manhattan, New York City and graduated from the New York University. Her mother is a Puerto Rican, while her father is of Irish descent. Velez declares herself a lesbian. She belongs to the rare group of television journalists who have declared themselves gay. While on a radio show on KABC-AM in the year 2007, she had revealed her status openly. She resides in Los Angeles now.

Profession

Velez-Mitchell had worked as a television journalist for many years in Philadelphia, Fort Myers, and Minneapolis, Florida. For eight years she worked as correspondent at WCBS-TV, situated in New York City. She has also worked for over a decade as news anchor and reporter at KCAL-TV, located in Los Angeles. She also hosts the show ‘Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell’, which is a topical event focused program that has different viewpoints. She has been the reporter for the nationally syndicated show ‘Celebrity Justice’ by Warner Brothers/Telepictures, and also serves as guest host of the HLN show, ‘Nancy Grace’.

Awards and Accolades

Jane has been honored with a Los Angeles Emmy Award and also shared a New York Emmy Award. The newscasts she did for KCAL-TV have won her four Southern California Golden Mike Awards and also an Emmy. She has also won an award for her documentary ‘Dancing through Life’, which she had written, produced, and directed herself. Her reporting on the show ‘Celebrity Justice’ has earned it two Genesis Awards from Humane Society of the United States. She had provided the daily commentary on the Michael Jackson molestations trial for the show ‘Nancy Grace’ in 2005 on HLN.

Velez –Mitchell is a chronic alcoholic and has written about her addiction, her lesbian status, and how she had overcome the hurdles she faced in her life in the book’ iWant: My Journey from Addiction and Overconsumption to a Simpler Honest Life’. The book released in 2009 was a best seller. Her next book ‘Addict Nation’ was released in 2011. She has also written a non- fiction book titled ‘Secrets Can Be Murder: What America’s Most Sensational Crimes Tell Us About Ourselves’, which was released in 2008.