Giselle Fernández (born May 15, 1961) is an American television journalist and anchor for Spectrum News 1. Her appearances on network television include reporting and guest anchoring for CBS Early Show, CBS Evening News, Today, and NBC Nightly News, regular host for Access Hollywood, and contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Early life and education Fernández was born in Mexico City and was brought to East Los Angeles in the United States at the age of four. Her Catholic father was a flamenco dancer, while her Jewish mother was a student of Mexican folklore. She attended California State University, Sacramento, where she graduated in 1982 earning her B.A. in Journalism and Government. Career Her television career began in 1983 with brief stops at KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and then KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, California. In 1985 she joined KTLA in Los Angeles as a reporter and weekend anchor. She was recommended to KTLA by actor Fess Parker, who lived in the Santa Barbara area and was a friend of KTLA's news managing director at the time. Two years later Fernandez moved to CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago, and in 1989 to WCIX CBS's newly owned station in Miami. In 1988 she garnered some controversy in Chicago when she went boating with John Cappas, a drug dealer being sought by authorities, then accompanied him to his arrest by federal agents. She gained her first national news job in October 1991 for CBS News, when she moved to New York City and became a correspondent and back-up anchor for the morning, evening, and weekend news broadcasts. She later moved to NBC, where she anchored Weekend Today and the sunday edition of NBC Nightly News, and filled in for Brian Williams on the saturday edition, and undertook various special reporting assignments in the U.S. and elsewhere. During this period of national news coverage, Fernández reported on the crisis from Cuban immigration, unrest in Haiti, the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, the trial of the conspirators from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a scud missile attack while covering the Persian Gulf War. She was invited to make a rare interview of Fidel Castro, then president of Cuba. From 1996 to 1999, Fernández was the co-host for Access Hollywood, an entertainment news program on NBC. She then co-hosted the This Week in History show on the History Channel. In October 2001, she returned