Barbara Walters is ABC News Correspondent and host of ABC News' magazine, 20/20 and The Barbara Walters Specials.

Barbara Walters' ground-breaking exclusive interviews with world figures and her enterprising reporting have made her one of the most highly acclaimed journalists on television.

Over the years, Ms. Walters has received national recognition for her work and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Just in the past few years, Ms. Walters was: named the "Newsperson of the Decade" for the 1980's by TV Guide 1993 honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Women's Projects & Productions, 1993 and by International Women's Media Foundation, 1992 saluted by the American Museum of the Moving Image, 1992 honored by the Museum of Broadcasting with a retrospective of her distinguished career, 1988 inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame "for being acknowledged worldwide as one of television's most respected interviewers and journalists," 1990 honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for a career in journalism excellence by Marist College, 1990 honored by the Overseas Press Club with their highest award, the President's Award, 1988.

Ms. Walters' numerous and timely interviews - which appear regularly on the weekly newsmagazine 20/20 and on The Barbara Walters Specials - read like a "Who's Who" of newsmakers. She made journalism history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November, 1977. She has interviewed every American President since Richard Nixon. Among her recent newsmaking interviews are Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin President and Mrs. George Bush Ross Perot, as an unofficial candidate for President, and after his withdrawal from the race General Norman Schwarzkopf former hostage Terry Waite Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor known as "Dr. Death " Desiree Washington, the woman whom Mike Tyson was convicted of raping Arthur and Jeanne Ashe, after his announcement that he was H.I.V. positive Gregory K, who successfully divorced his parents Michael Milkin Rush Limbaugh and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Barbara Walters Specials are continuously the top-rated specials of the year. Among those she interviewed during the 1992/93 television season were Jerry Seinfeld, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Sharon Stone, Denzel Washington, Garth Brooks, Julia Roberts and Whitney Houston.

In 1988, Barbara Walters marked her 50th Barbara Walters Specials with a two-hour anniversary broadcast. It featured moments from many of Ms. Walters most memorable "Specials" interviews from the previous 12 years, including final interviews with Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier and the Shah of Iran.

Ms. Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news. In 1984, she joined Hugh Downs as host of the ABC news magazine, 20/20. She is also a frequent contributor to Nightline and Good Morning America.

Prior to joining ABC, she appeared on NBC's Today show for 15 years, longer than any other woman on the program. She began on the Today show as a writer, and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1974, NBC officially designated her as the program's first female co-host.

Ms. Walters was a member of the NBC News team that went to the People's Republic of China to cover the visits of President Richard Nixon in 1972 and President Gerald Ford in 1975.

In addition to her responsibilities on the Today show, she hosted her own highly popular syndicated series, Not for Women Only, for five years and contributed on a regular basis to the NBC Radio Network.

Early in her career, she was a writer for CBS News and before that, she was the youngest producer with NBC-TV's New York station (WNBC-TV).

Ms. Walters is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, Temple University, Marymount College, Wheaton College and Hofstra University.

She is the author of How to Talk to Practically Anybody About Practically Anything.

A native of Boston, Ms. Walters is the daughter of the famed entertainment impresario, Lou Walters. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has one daughter, Jacqueline.