Colleen Williams

Who is Colleen Williams?

Colleen Williams is a news anchor of KNBC Channel 4 in Los Angeles, currently serving on the 5 and 11 p.m. weekday broadcasts. She also reports on occasion for NBC News and MSNBC. Williams is one of the most-recognized anchors in the Los Angeles area, the second-largest media market in the United States. Williams once could be recognized for her trademark hairstyle which until the late 1990s included a prominent silver streak.

Williams was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An Air Force brat, she moved around the country throughout her childhood. She attended college at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska before finishing her bachelors degree in education at University of Nebraska-Omaha. She taught in the Omaha Public School system for a few years before starting her news career with WOWT in Omaha.

Williams joined KNBC in 1986 from cross-town rival KCBS-TV where she anchored the 5 p.m. news for two years. Prior to her L.A. arrival at KCBS, Williams anchored at KPIX, the CBS station in San Francisco.

Williams was particularly visible during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which she covered for KNBC and MSNBC, co-anchoring a daily summary of the trial each evening. It was after the Simpson trial concluded that Williams succeeded long-time 11 p.m. anchor Kelly Lange. Lange left the station after 25 years to work briefly for KCBS-TV before leaving television entirely in 2001.