Oprah Winfrey was born on a Mississippi farm and raised by her paternal grandmother until she was six, when she moved to Milwaukee to live with her mother, Vernita Lee. Though Winfrey did well in school, she was allegedly sexually abused by male relatives and became increasingly troubled as a teenager. Her mother, a maid who was busy raising two other children, eventually sent Winfrey to live with her disciplinarian father, a barber and businessman in Nashville, Tennessee. Oprah flowered under Vernon Winfrey's strict supervision, excelling academically and as a public speaker. At age 16, she won a partial scholarship to the Tennessee State University in a public speaking contest sponsored by the Elks Club.

As a freshman at Tennessee State University, Oprah worked briefly as a radio newscaster before victories in two local beauty pageants helped land her a news anchor position at WTVF-TV, in Nashville. In 1976, only a few months short of earning her bachelor's degree at Tennessee State University, Winfrey landed a job as a reporter and evening news co-anchor at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. Although she did not succeed in that position, the station management realized that Winfrey, who had no formal journalistic training, was better suited to co-hosting WJZ's morning talk show, People Are Talking. Winfrey helped turn the show into a ratings success with her personable interviewing style and charismatic presence.

After eight years as the co-host of People Are Talking, Winfrey was offered a job as the host of A.M. Chicago, a Chicago talk show that aired opposite Phil Donahue's popular morning show and lagged behind it in the ratings. In one month, Winfrey's ratings equaled Donahue's, and in three, surpassed them. Donahue acknowledged Winfrey's ratings supremacy by moving his show to New York in 1985. In 1985 A.M. Chicago was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, and it was syndicated in 1986. It eventually became the highest-rated talk show in television history. By 1997, 15 to 20 million viewers watched it daily in the U.S., and it was seen in over 132 countries. The show has received 25 Emmy Awards, six of them for best host. In 1996, Time magazine named Winfrey one of the 25 most influential people in the world.

Also a talented actress, in 1985 Winfrey earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for her portrayal of Sofia in the film The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's book of the same name. In 1986 she founded HARPO Productions, becoming only the third woman to own her own television and film studios. Based in Chicago, HARPO (Oprah spelled backwards) owns and produces The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as such dramatic miniseries as The Women of Brewster Place (1988), based upon the book by Gloria Naylor, and The Wedding (1998), based upon the book by Dorothy West. In addition to supporting African American literature through her television films, Winfrey's on-air book club has brought new readers to such writers as Toni Morrison.

A political activist as well as an entertainer, Winfrey testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, describing the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, and worked for the passage of the National Child Protection Act in 1991, which provides for the establishment of a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. In December 1993 President Bill Clinton signed "Oprah's Bill" into law. Her many philanthropic ventures include donations of time and money to child protection efforts and the establishment of educational scholarships.