Host of the Political Talk Show 'The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson'

Elex Michaelson | Biography

Executive Producer and Co-host of 'FOX 11 News Special Report'

• By Chetana
• Update : September 03, 2021

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Elex Michaelson is an anchor at Fox Channel, and the host of the television political talk show and podcast, The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson.

Who is Elex Michaelson?

Michaelson grew up being inspired by political conversation from watching The Today Show and Good Day LA on television. He later went to Agoura Hills High School and completed college with double majors in broadcast journalism and political science from the University of California in 2004.

He had briefly interned at Fox Broadcasting in 2005. During college, he also worked as a reporter-intern at the NBC News, Washington. Then after graduating, he worked as an anchor and reporter at Bay City Television from 2008 to 2010. Subsequently, in 2010 he joined the ABC7 Eyewitness News as a reporter and fill-in anchor.

However, in 2017, Michaelson left ABC7 to focus on being an anchor. A year later, he joined the KTTV Station of Fox Broadcasting as an anchor. He also began hosting and producing a political show, The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson, in 2018. 

Then in 2020, he also began co-hosting Fox 11 News Special Report alongside Dr. Drew Pinsky.

How old is Elex Michaelson?

Michaelson was raised in Agoura Hills, California. He was born to his father, David Michaelson, and mother, Crystal Michaelson, an artist. His birthday falls on 18 of October. He was born in 1986.

Michaelson began gaining interest in politics and journalism from a young age after being inspired by the tv news shows such as The Today Show and Good Day LA. Eventually, he enrolled at the University of California in 2004 after graduating from Agoura High School as the student body president and captain of the basketball team. He would study two major courses at the university. He completed the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in broadcast journalism and political science from Annenberg School of Journalism. He graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors and was first in the class of his journalism batch in 2008.

In addition to that, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Golden Key International Honor Society, and Lambda Pi Eta. During the time, he also worked at the university’s Annenberg TV News and Trojanvision TV.

Career 

While studying, he briefly interned at Fox Broadcasting in 2005. He wrote stories and produced small-scaled reporting. His works were aired on Fox Network’s KTTV of Los Angeles.

In 2005, Michaelson also co-founded a philanthropist project, MichaelsonAwareness. The campaign functioned on a nationwide demographic scale and was also promoted by known actors, including George Clooney and Keira Knightley.

Then, from 2006 to 2008, he worked as a reporter-intern at NBC News, Washington. He mainly focused on politics and interviewing politicians for his coverage. He was the only intern at the NBC office to qualify in writing, reporting, and tracking stories. Therefore, he was listed as one of the ‘Top 10 Most Outstanding Interns’ in the NBC Universal Corporation.

Subsequently, after graduating in 2008, Michaelson became a reporter and anchor at the Bay City Television. There, he co-anchored every weekends’ morning newscast along with the interview sessions. He was the primary political anchor or reporter. He was also given to host and produce political specials of the channel.

In 2010, he landed the position of reporter and fill-in anchor at ABC News for ABC7 Eyewitness News. He then reported live sessions and also produced regular and guest interview segments. And while in this position, he also interviewed personalities such as Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and current U.S. President Joe Biden, among other political leaders.

However, after seven years of dedicating himself to ABC7, he resigned in 2017 and decided to pursue his career in a more focused position as an anchor.

In 2018, Michaelson also began producing and hosting the political show The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson. 

The show features discussions and debates with prominent newsmakers on the controversial and intriguing subjects affecting California.

Then after seven months of waiting, he received the position of an anchor at the KTTV Station of Fox Broadcasting in Los Angeles in 2018. There, he briefly hosted the Good Day L.A., and then he began co-anchoring the evening newscasts of the weekend. He was also the primary anchor for all breaking news.

He also has his own Youtube channel. As of 29 August 2021, his YouTube channel, Elex Michaelson, has over 9 million views and around 22.2K followers. On the same channel, he uploads the interviews he conducted for The Issue Is.

‘The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson’ and 'FOX 11 News Special Report’

In 2018, Michaelson also began producing and hosting the political show The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson. 

The show features discussions and debates with prominent newsmakers on the controversial and intriguing subjects affecting California.

Michaelson is the executive producer and host of the show. He is responsible for booking, scripting, producing, and presenting the content of the program. 

In addition, in 2020, Michaelson began executive-producing and co-hosting the Fox 11 live news discussion program, News Special Report, with Dr. Drew Pinsky. The program conducts interviews with major newsmakers and experts. It began as a one-week pilot during the epidemic but has been approved as a staple show on KTTV.

LGBTQ

Michaelson is an outspoken advocate of LGBTQ equality. His social media accounts feature a lot of posts of his support for LGBTQ rights. 

Michaelson has  also interviewed an openly gay Olympic skier, Gus Kenworthy, on Fox 11 Los Angeles's Good Day LA in the year 2018. Later, he shared a short clip of the interview through his Facebook page captioning it with a statement asserted by Kenworthy, "Being gay doesn't stop you from anything....my message is inclusion and love"

Additionally, he also tweeted a gay politician's statement on marriage equality on Fox 11’s program on 16 June 2020 beside a minute-long clip of the program.

“(MarkTakano), an openly gay Democratic congressman from Riverside, says the #SCOTUS #LGBTQRights decision is "extremely meaningful": "It means everywhere in our country...a person can get married on a Saturday & no longer faces getting fired on Monday!"

He has also interviewed Chasten Buttigieg, who he referred to as "the most important gay man in American political history" on his Instagram post on 12 September 2020. The interview was held on his podcast series The issue Is.

Later, (krinkelstein), a Twitter user commented on Michaelson's congratulation tweet to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation on being appointed for the position, on 16 December 2020. "It would be so hot if you two dated!!", the comment read to which Michaelson replied, "He’s married to a great guy...and great guest)." 

Similarly, he has published an editorial on Medium, an American online publishing platform, titled 'It’s Time to Re-Examine “Traditional” Masculinity' on 15 December 2017. He wrote the article in reference to the talk show, Man Enough (2017-2018) created by and starring Justin Baldoni that discussed manhood and the role of men in society.

Views on Politics

Michaelson, who describes himself as a "political junkie," has had one-on-one interviews with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and a slew of other candidates. His preferred political concern in interviews is policy. "The idea that it is still one of the great ways to help people and to affect people's lives. A lot of this stuff is really, really important," he told Fox LA in 2018. 

He's also fascinated by politics and the therein gamesmanship, as well as its players. The metaphor is in correspondence to his belief that politics can be like sports, but with "real-world consequences." 

Philanthropy

Michaelson volunteers with a number of non-profit organizations, including the Boys & Girls Clubs, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the ALS Association, and the Drew Childhood Development Corporation.

He served as the guest emcee for the 4th Annual Community Awards for Drew Child Development Corporation. It is a non-profit that helps children in Watts-Willowbrook, Compton, and South Los Angeles prosper, therefore boosts the community's future. The Community Awards are now in their fourth year.

From 2005 to 2006, he was a co-founder of the Get Hands-On Campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness. It was the nation's largest fraternity philanthropy initiative on record and included a celebrity t-shirt campaign with headliners George Clooney and Keira Knightley.

ATVN

At USC's  ATVN, he previously served as a sports reporter, anchor, reporter, W/S/E, floor director, and floor director. According to his interview in the ATNV newsletter, ATNV trained him on time constraints and formulating content in terms of video. 

"Being able to “one-man-band” in a few hours at ATVN when no one wants to call you back makes it seem like a piece of cake when you have a photographer, editor, and willing interview subjects to work with!" he stated in the newsletter. 

Award and Nominations 

Michaelson has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and has won six of them.