Jonathan Karl: Movies & Filmography

Jonathan David Karl, born on January 19, 1968, is a prominent American political journalist and author who has established himself as one of the most recognizable faces in American news media. Karl has covered the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the U.S. State Department throughout his illustrious career, reporting from more than 30 countries on issues ranging from U.S. politics and foreign policy to military affairs. He has served as the chief White House correspondent for ABC News from December 2012 through the end of the first Trump administration in January 2021, and currently holds the position of chief Washington correspondent for ABC News while also co-anchoring This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Throughout his career, Karl has authored several books, including the New York Times bestsellers Front Row at the Trump Show (2020) and Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show (2021), as well as Tired of Winning (2023) and Retribution (2025). He has received numerous awards, including an Emmy Award in 2009, the Walter Cronkite Award in 2013, and the Merriman Smith Memorial Award in 2021, and served as the 94th President of the White House Correspondents' Association from 2019 to 2020. Karl grew up in both Connecticut and South Dakota, where his mother and stepfather conducted an oral history project for the University of South Dakota interviewing the men who worked to create Mount Rushmore, an experience that Karl has credited with sparking his interest in journalism. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1990, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Vassar Spectator, before beginning his career as a researcher and reporter for The New Republic. Karl then moved to the New York Post in 1994 to cover New York City Hall, and later joined CNN in 1996 as a political reporter before eventually being hired by ABC News in January 2003 as the senior foreign affairs correspondent. He married Maria Nova Catalano in 1991 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and the couple has two children together.