ARI SHAPIRO is an American radio journalist born on this date in Fargo, North Dakota. When he was eight years old, he moved with his family to Beaverton, Oregon. He attended Beaverton High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. At Yale, he sang in Mixed Company of Yale and was a member of the Scroll and Key secret society.

Shapiro began his NPR career as an intern to legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg in January 2001. Following that assignment, he worked as an editorial assistant and an assistant editor on Morning Edition. After working as a regional reporter for NPR in Atlanta and Miami and five years as NPR’s Justice Correspondent, Shapiro began covering the White House in 2010. In 2014, he became NPR’s correspondent in London.

In September 2015, Shapiro became one of four rotating hosts on National Public Radio’s flagship drive-time program All Things Considered. 

Shapiro’s work has been recognized with journalism awards, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the Daniel Shorr Journalism Prize, a laurel from the Columbia Journalism Review, and the American Judges Association’s American Gavel Award. Shapiro was the first NPR reporter to be promoted to correspondent before age 30. 

Since 2009, Shapiro has been a regular guest singer with the band Pink Martini. He appears on four of the band’s albums, singing in several languages. He made his live debut with the band at the Hollywood Bowl. He has performed live with them frequently since then, including at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Beacon Theater in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Olympia in Paris, Kew Gardens in London, and the Lycabettus Theatre in Athens.

In May 2010, the pop-culture magazine Paper included Shapiro in an annual list of “Beautiful People,” saying he “must have a clone. No one man could have so many talents and be in so many places at once.” In December 2010, MSNBC’s entertainment website BLTWY placed Shapiro 26th on its “power list” of “35 people under 35 who changed DC in 2010,” calling him “one of NPR’s fastest rising stars.”

In 2016 and 2008, LGBT-themed magazine Out included Shapiro in the “Out 100”, a list of “the year’s most interesting, influential, and newsworthy LGBT people.” Shapiro was also included on a list of openly gay media professionals in The Advocate’s “Forty under 40” issue of June/July 2009.

In February 2004, Shapiro and longtime boyfriend Michael Gottlieb were married at San Francisco City Hall. Gottlieb is a lawyer who worked at the White House counsel’s office from 2013 to 2015.

In 2019, Shapiro embarked on a cabaret career, joining Alan Cumming for a show called Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret with performances in Fire Island. Provincetown and at The Carlyle in New York City.