Tom Llamas


Thomas Edward Llamas is an American journalist. The weekend anchor for World News Tonight on the American Broadcasting Company, he has won multiple Emmy Awards for his reporting, as well as two Edward R. Murrow awards.

Early life

Llamas was born in Miami, Florida, on July 2, 1979, to Cuban immigrants who had fled the island as political refugees. He attended The Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami. He is a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was a member of the LA Gamma chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon. He received bachelor's degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Drama and Speech which he completed in May 2001.

Career

Llamas began his broadcasting career in 2000 with the NBC News Specials Unit and moved to MSNBC where he worked from 2000 to 2005 and covered mostly politics. After that he moved to NBC's WTVJ in Miami. Llamas moved to New York and joined WNBC and NBC News in 2009 as general-assignment reporter.
In September 2014, he moved to ABC News as a New York-based correspondent and substituted for David Muir on ABC World News Tonight over the Christmas 2014 period. In 2015, Llamas became the Sunday anchor of ABC World News Tonight. He became the sole weekend anchor in January 2017.
During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign, Llamas spent the year reporting on the Republican candidates. He criticized the use by Jeb Bush and Donald Trump of the term "anchor baby" and was called a "sleaze" by Trump after questioning him about the amount of money he had donated to charity.

Awards

Llamas has won several awards including an Emmy Award for "Best Anchor" and "Best Hard News Story" and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for WNBC-TV's coverage of Hurricane Sandy.
His first Emmy was awarded in 2008 for his reporting as the first TV journalist to work on a human smuggling interdiction at sea with the U.S. Coast Guard. He won an Emmy Award in 2013 for his coverage of Hurricane Irene.