The Most Influential Journalists Lester Holt Occupation: Journalist News Anchor Musician Education: Cordova High School Birth Date: Lester Don Holt Jr. March 8, 1959 Who is Lester Holt? Lester Don Holt Jr. (born March 8, 1959)[3] is an American journalist and news anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC. On June 18, 2015, Holt was made the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News following the demotion of Brian Williams. Holt followed in the career footsteps of Max Robinson, an ABC News evening co- anchor, and Holt became the first African- American to solo anchor a weekday network nightly newscast. According to a 2018 poll, Holt was ranked as being the most trusted TV news anchor in America. Holt was also known for his moderation of the first presidential debate of 2016 and was praised by The Washington Post columnists for his role in fact-checking false statements While NBC Nightly News was the top-ranked evening news program for over 30 years during the Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams eras, ratings dropped to second place after Holt began as anchor. Early Life & Education Holt was born on March 8, 1959, on Hamilton Air Force Base, Marin County, California, the youngest child of four of June (DeRozario) and Lester Don Holt Sr. His maternal grandparents were born in Jamaica. His maternal grandfather Canute DeRozario was an Anglo-Indian and was one of 14 children of an Indo-Jamaican father from Calcutta, India, and a White Jamaican mother from England. His maternal grandmother, May, was born in Jamaica but raised in Harlem, New York, where his mother was born. His father was African American from Michigan, with roots in Tennessee. He graduated from Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova in 1977 and majored in government at California State University, Sacramento, though he never graduated. In 2012, Holt told American Profile news magazine: "My first on-air job was actually as a disc jockey at a Country and Western station. The only time I could land a full-time gig was if I was willing to report the news." Holt would keep the job with the radio station through his college years.