Bianna Golodryga

Early life and education

Golodryga was born to a working-class family of Bessarabian Jews in Căușeni, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (now independent Moldova), the only child of Zhanna and Vitaly Golodryga. In 1980, when she was 18 months old, her family left the Soviet Union as political refugees, each with $75. They settled in Houston, Texas. She has returned to Moldova only once since then, visiting her grandparents and cousins in 1988. That same year, her grandmother joined them in Houston. Her mother is the chief information officer of Hess Corporation and her father, a mechanical engineer, was a consultant for DuPont.

Golodryga attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston but was interested in becoming a journalist instead of an actress. She was inspired to look more about what was going on in the world after performing in a play about AIDS written by her teacher. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, with a degree in Russian/East European & Eurasian studies and a minor in economics. She is fluent in Russian, and knows a few phrases of Romanian (spoken in Moldova).

Career

Golodryga had planned for a career in the financial services industry after she graduated from college. She became a licensed trader and got a few jobs at financial companies. After a sharp drop in the market, however, she decided to pursue journalism. She frequently watched CNBC and was a fan of Maria Bartiromo's show, so called the network to ask about any opportunities. She was told there were none currently, but undeterred, she decided to move to New York City and keep trying.

Golodryga persisted and was offered a job at CNBC, where she worked for six years as a producer. She became an on-air correspondent after being asked to fill in one day. In 2004, Golodryga was named one of the top journalists under the age of 30. She was a correspondent for ABC between 2007 and 2010, and was named co-anchor of the weekend edition of Good Morning America in May 2010, following the departure of former co-anchor Kate Snow, who went to work for NBC.

In April 2013, Golodryga was the first person to interview Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, which she called "the most emotional moment" of her career. At first, she assisted her colleagues with the proper pronunciation of the name, but then was tasked with calling Anzor in Chechnya. He had very few details to offer but called her back the next day, trying to find more information about what was happening and whether or not Dzhokhar, who had been taken into custody severely injured, was still alive.

She served as weekend co-anchor of Good Morning America until August 4, 2014, when she left it to join the business and finance news department of Yahoo! News. She has guest-hosted on Way Too Early and is a regular contributor to Morning Joe on MSNBC. In 2017 she was a guest co-anchor of the CBS Morning News. She joined CBS on a permanent basis as a correspondent in September 2017 and simultaneously joined CNN as a contributor.

In December 2016, Golodryga confronted Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, over his defense of Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. At the time, Rohrabacher was considered a candidate to be appointed Secretary of State by then-President Elect Donald Trump, and was criticizing China for its record on human rights. Golodryga then asked about Putin, who has been consistently praised by Trump. Rohrabacher answered, "Oh, baloney. Where do you come from? How can you say that?" to which Golodryga replied, "I come from the former Soviet Union — that's where I came from. I came here as a political refugee. That's where I came from." Rohrabacher appeared flustered and accused Golodryga of being biased before he compared Putin to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Golodryga is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also a regular columnist for The Huffington Post.

Personal life

In September 2010, she married Peter R. Orszag, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Obama Administration and the forthcoming managing director and vice chairman of investment banking at Lazard. They have one son and one daughter.