Michael Cogdill

Cogdill was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of a truck driver and a mill worker.[4] His earliest jobs included mowing lawns, cleaning horse stalls, and working as a production assistant on film sets.[5] He graduated from North Buncombe High School in Weaverville, North Carolina in 1979 and then graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1984, earning a BA degree in communications (with an emphasis on the liberal arts).[6]

Two weeks after college graduation, Cogdill began his career in television, working at WECT, an NBC affiliate in Wilmington, North Carolina. He soon moved over to WWAY, Wilmington's ABC station,[7] and later migrated to CBS-aligned WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia. He finally landed at Greenville, South Carolina station WYFF (an NBC affiliate) in 1989, where he cemented his position as, arguably, the most decorated anchor man in South Carolina television history.[8]

Cogdill first rose to prominence when he reported on the story of Susan Smith,[9] a Union, South Carolina woman convicted of murdering her two young sons in 1994 (after initially claiming that an African-American man had carjacked her and kidnapped the children).[10][11][12] Cogdill’s Susan Smith: A Question of Justice (1996) garnered an Emmy, leading to appearances on such outlets as NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN.[13]

Cogdill is the author of She-Rain, a novel set in rural western North Carolina in the 1920s.[14]

It was announced in 2014 that filmmaker Richard O'Sullivan had adapted She-Rain as a screenplay and that plans to produce the property as a feature film were in development (with Cogdill's film and television production company HeartStrong Media serving as a producing partner).[15]

In addition to winning the National Edward R. Murrow Award and 29 Emmys, Cogdill has garnered the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Star Award,[16] a South Carolina Television Journalist Award, and is a multiple-time winner of the Radio and Television News Director Association of the Carolinas Award.

• Michael Cogdill’s Official Site
• Michael Cogdill’s IMDb Profile