Serena Altschul (born October 13, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist, known for her work at MTV News and CBS.

Early life and education

Altschul was born in New York City to Siri von Reis, an author and botanist, and Arthur Altschul, a member of the Lehman banking family. Her mother was of half-Finnish and half-Swedish ancestry and her father was of German Jewish ancestry. After her parents divorced, two-year-old Serena and two of her siblings, Arthur Goodhart Altschul Jr. and Emily Altschul (Miller), grew up living with their mother. Her half-brothers are Charles Altschul and Stephen Altschul from her father's previous marriage. Altschul attended Scripps College for a few years; she studied English literature but did not graduate. In 1993, while still in college, she was the associate producer of The Last Party, a political documentary.

Career

After school, she worked for two years at Channel One News, a channel which was seen nationwide in high schools, as an anchor/reporter. In 1987 she landed a job at MTV and in January 1996 she started working for MTV News. She also hosted shows such as MTV News: UNfiltered, Breaking it Down and hosted and produced True Life. From 2002 to 2003 Altschul worked at CNN. She was the host and producer of a CNN special about the return of PCP. She continued to work for MTV News while at CNN. On December 23, 2003, she was named a CBS News contributing correspondent. Since 2013 she has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning. She played herself on Jay-Z's 1999 song, "Dope Man". She appeared as herself in the films Light It Up, Queen of the Damned, and Josie and the Pussycats.

Awards