Bio
Ari Melber is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer and attorney.
He hosts “The Beat with Ari Melber“ airing weeknights at 6pm ET on MSNBC, named one of the “best” TV shows of 2017 by the Detroit Free Press.
The Beat was nominated for a 2020 Emmy in the Outstanding Live Interview category, and Melber received a 2016 Emmy Award for his reporting on the Supreme Court.
Melber also serves as Chief Legal Correspondent for MSNBC, covering the Justice Department, FBI and Supreme Court.
Melber is also an NBC News Legal Analyst, appearing on programs such as “The Today Show.”
Melber previously practiced law at a major New York firm, specializing in First Amendment, reporter’s privilege and copyright litigation.
He received a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and is a member of the New York Bar.
Additional Background:
Melber is a former correspondent for The Nation, former columnist for Politico, and a former traveling correspondent covering the 2008 Obama Campaign for The Washington Independent.
His writing has also been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Daily News, among others. Melber’s reporting has been cited by The New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Guardian, Rolling Stone, National Review and The Economist.
Previously, Melber served as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign.
Melber has been a featured speaker at Oxford, Yale, Harvard Law School, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the Columbia University Political Union, NYU, Georgetown University, USC, Alpha Phi Alpha, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and several state bar associations.
Melber has contributed chapters or essays to the books “America Now,” (St. Martins, 2009), “At Issue: Affirmative Action,” (Cengage, 2009), and “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004).
His legal writing and investigative reporting has also been cited in over 20 nonfiction books and a range of academic journals (including “Power and Constraint,” “Shelby County v. Holder: A New Perspective on Voting Rights,” “Political Campaign Communication,” “Rethinking Arab Democratization,” The New England Journal of Medicine, The Middle East Journal, International Affairs, American Behavioral Scientist, Catholic University Law Review and Boston University Law Review, among others).