Michael Cogdill


Michael Cogdill is an American Journalist, Anchor, Novelist, Screenwriter, and Film producer.
His work as a journalist has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN. He has been the recipient of 29 Emmys and a National Edward R. Murrow Award.

Early life

Cogdill was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of a truck driver and a mill worker.
His earliest jobs included mowing lawns, cleaning horse stalls, and working as a production assistant on film sets. He graduated from North Buncombe High School in Weaverville, North Carolina in 1979 and then graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1984, earning a BA degree in communications.

Early Television Career

Two weeks after college graduation, Cogdill began his career in television, working at WECT, an NBC affiliate in Wilmington, North Carolina. He soon moved over to WWAY, Wilmington's ABC station,
and later migrated to CBS-aligned WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia. He finally landed at Greenville, South Carolina station WYFF in 1989, where he cemented his position as, arguably, the most decorated anchor man in South Carolina television history.

National Acclaim

Cogdill first rose to prominence when he reported on the story of Susan Smith, a Union, South Carolina woman convicted of murdering her two young sons in 1994. Cogdill’s Susan Smith: A Question of Justice garnered an Emmy, leading to appearances on such outlets as NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN.

Books

Cogdill is the author of She-Rain, a novel set in rural western North Carolina in the 1920s.

Film

It was announced in 2014 that filmmaker Richard O'Sullivan had adapted She-Rain as a screenplay and that plans to produce the property as a feature film were in development.

Awards

In addition to winning the National Edward R. Murrow Award and 29 Emmys, Cogdill has garnered the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Star Award, a South Carolina Television Journalist Award, and is a multiple-time winner of the Radio and Television News Director Association of the Carolinas Award.