Background
The popular journalist was born as Natalie Leticia Morales on June 6, 1972 in the country of Taiwan. Even though she was born in the Asian country, she does not have any Asian blood in her heritage. Her multicultural background comes from her Brazilian mother Penelope and her Puerto Rican father Lieutenant Colonel Mario Morales Jr. As a result of her diverse background, Natalie speaks 3 languages. She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and American English.

Until the age of 18, she spent her life living overseas in Brazil and later in Spain, as a US Air Force military brat. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Rutgers University with dual majors in Journalism and Latin American studies. She always had an interest in journalism but her major in Latin American studies was due to her need to find out about her culture. She was taught well by her parents to care about her background and to not forget where came from. When she had the chance to research her upbringing, she did not pass up the chance.

As a dedicated university student she was a member of the oldest honor society for liberal arts and sciences in the United States, with 286 active chapters. The honor society is known as the Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated Summa Cum Laude which was a great sign that she would go extra lengths to become successful.

Broadcasting Career
Though many people know her as a renowned journalist, the ‘Today Show’ news anchor worked at Chase Bank in New York before pursuing her journalism career. At the beginning of her career, Morales served as the morning co-anchor and reporter at WVIT-TV in Hartford, Connecticut.

At WVIT-TV, she reported on the Columbine shootings, Hurricane Floyd, the 2000 Presidential election and the September 11, 2001 attacks. Her analysis and opinions on all those topics made her stand out from her competitors. A few years later, she received the "Groundbreaking Latina in Media" award from Catalina magazine and the National Association of Latina Leaders. Also in that same year, People en Español, the Spanish-language American magazine, named her one of its Fifty Most Beautiful People.

In August 2016, she was offered the chance to move to Los Angeles to become the west coast anchor as well as to replace Billy Bush as the host of Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live.

Outside her successful career in journalism, she has also made cameo appearances in films like Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! and the 2016 follow-up, Sharknado: The 4th Awakens. Even though the Sharknado film franchise is more known for being cheesy and horrible films, Natalie was just happy to be in a movie and she had a lot of fun during production.