What's New - Home - Login

As a CNN anchor, Holmes has reported many breaking news stories including the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India; the Georgia-Russian conflict in 2008; the Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia; the terrorist attacks at Scotland's Glasgow Airport in 2007; as well as the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2006.

He has also reported on scene during the US Airways Flight 1549 splash landing in the Hudson River in New York City in 2009; Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to the United States in 2008 by anchoring live from a Mass the Pope gave at Yankee Stadium; a freak downtown tornado in Atlanta, Georgia in 2008; and he reported live from the campus of The University of Mississippi during then Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain's first presidential debate.

Before joining CNN, Holmes had been an anchor for the San Jose NBC affiliate KNTV, NBC11. As an anchor and reporter for the station, Holmes served as a go-to correspondent for live reports across the Bay Area and California and traveled to Greece to cover the 2004 summer Olympics.

Before joining NBC11, Holmes served as a weekend anchor and reporter for KTHV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas. He began his career at KSNF-TV in Joplin, Missouri, where he started as a producer, eventually becoming a general assignment reporter and then a weekend anchor and reporter.

Holmes graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.

Holmes often subbed for Rick Sanchez, who hosted a show on CNN utilizing many different online social networking sites, including Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Holmes was selected to host the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Awards ceremony in April 2009.

He is also among the voice talent for the Atlanta University Center Feature Animated Film Project, Kasha and the Zulu King set for release in 2010.

Holmes was born in West Memphis, Arkansas. He was part of the Leon H. Sullivan Summit, a biannual gathering of world leaders, in 2008 and visited the United Republic of Tanzania. In the African country, he visited orphanages and impoverished communities. Many of these visits were reported on by CNN.

He has also spent time volunteering in Costa Rica.

Last year for CNN's Black in America special, Holmes wrote about his personal experiences with racism for the Anderson Cooper 360 blog, writing:

"I haven’t come in contact with a lot of blatant racism in my life. Yes, I’ve been called the N-word. To be honest, it never really upset me because as soon as that word comes out of someone’s mouth, I’m pretty sure that I’ve won the argument. That person has just confirmed how ignorant they are.

I don’t necessarily consider most people racist. I have, however, seen a lot of racial bias. What I mean by that is people don’t hate me because of the color of my skin, but they simply don’t see me as an equal. Some may say that by not seeing me as an equal, that’s the very definition of racism. Rather, I believe people have so many misconceptions and preconceived notions about black people. They make assumptions based on the color of my skin."

He also recounted a story about an incident at a Bay Area car wash when he owned what he described as a large, white SUV with chrome wheels and tinted windows:

"One day a man came over to me as I was washing my truck and said, “Man, I just gotta know. What do you guys do to have nice cars like that?”

He was a nice enough guy and wasn’t really nasty when he asked the question. He truly seemed puzzled about how a young, black man could be driving such a nice car. He went on to ask me if I played for the San Francisco 49ers. Again, I’m 5?11? and 165 lbs. No, I don’t play for the 49ers.

The guy’s first thought at seeing a young, black man in a nice car was not that I could have gotten it through education and hard work. That is what I mean by bias."

Holmes is divorced from his college sweetheart Amy. During the weekend of March 6, 2010 in St. Lucia he married an Atlanta-area attorney.