George Stephanopoulos Biography

George Stephanopoulos Biography (1961-)



Former presidential advisor. Born February 10, 1961, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The son of first-generation Greek American parents, Stephanopoulos grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Columbia University and in 1983 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he received a master's degree in theology.
Stephanopoulos began his career in Washington, DC as an aide to Ohio Congressman Ed Feighan. He later served as Feighan's chief of staff before leaving to work on the doomed 1988 presidential campaign of a fellow Greek-American liberal Democrat, Michael Dukakis. He returned to Washington in 1989 and landed a job as the executive floor assistant to then-House majority leader Dick Gephardt. In 1991, Stephanopoulos signed on with the Democratic presidential campaign of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, as Clinton's deputy campaign manager for communications. After Clinton's victory in 1992, Stephanopoulos became one of the new president's most trusted aides; during Clinton's first term, Stephanopoulos served as the senior advisor to the president for policy andstrategy. He was involved in the development of majorpolicy initiatives during Clinton's first term, most notably crime legislation, affirmative action, and the notoriously unsuccessful health care plan spearheaded by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Shortly after Clinton's reelection in 1996, Stephanopoulos resigned from Clinton's team, citing stress, fatigue, and depression. After his resignation, Stephanopoulos moved to New York City, where he works as a professor of government at Columbia University and a politicalcommentator and analyst for ABC News. In 1999, he published a book about his experience working with Clinton, entitled All Too Human: A Political Education.

In November 2001, Stephanopoulos married actress Alexandra Wentworth. Their daughter, Elliott Anastasia Wentworth Stephanopoulos, was born on September 9, 2002.