- published: 20 Jun 2016
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William Russell "Willie" Geist (born May 3, 1975) is an American television personality. He is co-anchor of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and co-anchor of NBC's Today's Take the third hour of The Today Show. Geist serves as a fill-in anchor on the Today Show for Matt Lauer, Carson Daly, and Natalie Morales. Geist also is a Correspondent for NBC News and NBC Sports, hosting NBC's Olympic coverage.
Geist is the co-author of The New York Times bestselling book Good Talk, Dad, written in 2014 with his father Bill Geist. Geist also is the author of The New York Times bestseller American Freak Show, released on October 12, 2010, and of Loaded! Become a Millionaire Overnight and Lose 20 Pounds in 2 Weeks or Your Money Back!, a satire of the popular self-help genre, released on May 10, 2011.
Geist was born in Evanston, Illinois, to author, columnist, and current CBS News correspondent Bill Geist and social worker Jody Geist.
He attended Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where he was captain of the football and basketball teams. He later went on to graduate from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, he was an editor of the university's official student newspaper, The Vanderbilt Hustler and a member of Phi Delta Theta.