About Rosie O’Donnell

For six years, Rosie O’Donnell was host and executive producer of the Emmy-winning talk and variety series The Rosie O’Donnell Show. In her first season, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, her first of six Emmys for Outstanding Talk Show Host and for Outstanding Talk Show. Rosie was moderator on the tenth season of ABC’s The View and hosted Rosie Radio on SiriusXM. She returned to television hosting in 2011 with The Rosie Show on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

Rosie’s television appearances include American Gigolo,  I Know This Much Is True, SMILF, A League of Their Own,  L Word Generation Q, Run The World,  When We Rise, Mom, The Fosters, Will & Grace, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Queer as Folk, Sesame Street, The Nanny, Nip/Tuck, The Larry Sanders Show, and Riding The Bus With My Sister. Rosie hosted Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards from 1997 to 2003 and executive produced and hosted Stand Up Spotlight on VH1.

Rosie also executive co-produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 2009 Lifetime Original Film America and has been involved in several HBO documentaries, including Rosie O’Donnell: A Heartfelt Stand Up, Rosie’s Family Cruise, A Family Is a Family Is a Family: A Rosie O’Donnell Celebration, and Don’t Divorce Me.

On the big screen, O’Donnell has starred in A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Another Stakeout, The Flintstones, Exit To Eden, Now and Then, Beautiful Girls, Harriet the Spy, Wide Awake, and voiced “Turk” in Walt Disney’s Tarzan.

The multi-talented Rosie starred as Rizzo in Tommy Tune’s 1994 revival of Grease, and her other memorable Broadway credits include Seussical, Fiddler on the Roof, Love, Loss and What I Wore, and the Encores! production of No, No, Nanette. In 2004, Rosie combined her love of Broadway with ‘80s pop musical sensation Boy George producing the musical Taboo, based on his life.

When critics claimed that Broadway was on the decline and networks considered not broadcasting The Tony Awards, Rosie came to the rescue, agreeing to host The 51st Annual Tony Awards and presenting a week-long tribute to the Great White Way on her show leading up to the event. In 2014, The Tony’s presented Rosie with The Isabelle Stevenson Award, which is given annually to a member of the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations.

As a tireless crusader for children, she established Rosie’s Theater Kids in 2003, which provides free in-school, after-school, and summer instruction in theater and life skills to the public school children of New York City. In 2015, First Lady Michelle Obama presented Rosie’s Theater Kids with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award at the White House.

Currently, you can hear Rosie weekly on her iHeart podcast, “ONWARD with Rosie O’Donnell.”