Cat Greenleaf

Cat Greenleaf is a mom, wife, exceptionally loyal friend, city dweller, country girl, avid pet collector, dumpster diver, real estate dabbler, CEO, adoption advocate, and, yes, TV host who recently, and happily, turned 43. The only thing she still wants is more than 24 hours in each day to experience everything there is. Cat is not a natural blond, though she believes she should be. She is, however, the proud mom of her two sons Primo, 6, and Truman, 3, and counts their birth mothers among the most graceful and selfless women she’s ever encountered. Cat’s also convinced that her husband, Michael Rey, walks on water. He’s an investigative producer for 60 Minutes and a begrudging accomplice in the acquisition of animals. A family woman to the bone, Cat really hit the work-from-home jackpot when she created Talk Stoop with Cat Greenleaf, where she interviews celebrities on the stoop of her Brooklyn brownstone. It was both a whim and a gamble for NBC and Cat, but after three Emmys, that bet has certainly paid off. The show now airs in the top nine markets, and between broadcast, digital, and platforms like taxi cabs and gas pumps, Talk Stoop is viewed nearly 12 million times a week. In 2013, Talk Stoop took to national cable airwaves as USA, cable’s #1 channel in daytime and primetime, made Cat (and her stoop) the face of their daytime block. Between her regular show and the pieces she does for USA, some big-name behinds have graced the stoop, including Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Don Cheadle, Woody Harrelson, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Arianna Huffington, Claire Danes, Dan Rather, Katey Sagal, every Kardashian you could imagine, Wilco, the Muppets, Eva Longoria, Jenny McCarthy, Anna Deavere Smith, Jerry Springer, Elliot Spitzer, Jesse Jackson, Rahm Emmanuel, Heather Graham, Lisa Kudrow, Mike Tyson, Martha Stewart, James Spader, Howie Mandel, Alan Cumming, Nas, Orlando Bloom and Michael J. Fox. Her proudest moment among many on the stoop was when Oliver Stone told her “You’re not exactly the New York Times, sweetheart... Sorry for calling you sweetheart.” Another was reciting the Gettysburg Address with her son Primo for Ken Burns. Her favorite piece of professional advice came from stoop guest Brooke Shields who told her to “go where the water’s warm.” Cat has actually made out with one and only one of her stoop guests: Ed Asner. Do with that information what you will. Her dream guest is still her dad but then again, do we really want to know what our parents actually think of us? Cat's latest venture is Huffington Post Rise, a show designed to jumpstart viewers' days with uplifting and empowering information, rather than the negativity and, for lack of a better expression, bad news we see on most morning shows. Cat also strives to make Rise funny because if you can't laugh at life then, let's face it, you're pretty much screwed. Cat got her start in broadcast as an airborne traffic reporter for KGO radio in San Francisco and then worked her way into a gig reporting features on New York’s NBC affiliate, WNBC. Along the way, she hosted cable shows Craftlab, Vacation Home Search and Chasing History Home before finally landing her dream job of hanging out at home and chatting over coffee, only with a camera rolling. Cat also created a company called LUST, an acronym for Look Up Stop Texting. The LUST mission is to encourage people to put the phone down, look up, and LIVE. Rather than burying our heads in smartphones all day, LUST reminds us to appreciate and experience the world around us in all of its beauty and ugliness. LUST products have been sold at Macy’s in NYC, and Fred Segal in LA. Another cause Cat holds very dear is adoption, particularly of children in the foster care system in the States and abroad. She serves as an ambassador for two organizations that champion foster kids: CASA NY and Spence Chapin. If Cat had her way, everyone who wanted to would be able to afford adoption and every child would have a family. Cat was raised in New York and Los Angeles and spent some time living in San Francisco, Brazil and India, but the place she’d rather be more than anywhere is the Airstream trailer outside of her cabin in upstate New York. If the trailer’s a-rocking, it means she’s in there practicing her ukelele.