She's a media queen, and she reaches an estimated 49 million viewers a week through TV alone. Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in 1954 and lived in poverty while growing up. Despite a dysfunctional upbringing, Winfrey eventually received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she studied communications and worked at a local radio station on the side. Winfrey got her big break in Chicago in 1983 when she began hosting a morning talk show. Within months, The Oprah Winfrey Show replaced Donahue as the highest-rated talk show in Chicago, and from there, her career skyrocketed. She not only served as supervising producer and host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, taped in Chicago, but Winfrey is also the founder of her own magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine and women's lifestyle website, Oprah.com. Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than $70 million and given 100 percent of donations to nonprofit organizations worldwide. Her production company, Harpo Productions Inc., created another daytime hit, Dr. Phil, in 2002. There's more--Oprah is the co-founder of Oxygen Media, which operates a 24-hour cable television network for women. She also produces Oprah & Friends on XM Satellite Radio. Most recently, Oprah launched the Oprah Winfrey Network--OWN--in the second half of 2009 on the Discovery Health Channel. From Broadway producer to actress to philanthropist, there seems no limit to what Oprah can do.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217929#ixzz2uReVKoC8