Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow (born April 1, 1973, in Castro Valley, California, U.S.) is an American political commentator, television host, and radio personality best known as the host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" (2008– ) on the cable news channel MSNBC.

Maddow grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area with her father, an attorney, and her mother, a school administrator. She attended Stanford University, where she earned a B.A. in public policy in 1994. As a senior she received the John Gardner Fellowship for public service, which allowed her to work with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel in San Francisco and become involved in prison AIDS advocacy. During her time at Stanford she publicly came out as a lesbian by posting an open letter throughout her dormitory.

In 1995 Maddow went to the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her doctorate (D.Phil.) in politics in 2001. Her dissertation examined HIV/AIDS and health care reform in British and American prisons.