You’ve probably seen Morgan Radford on NBC News Daily or the TODAY show, delivering the news with that signature poise. She has this way of making the most complex international stories feel personal. But whenever she’s on screen, people start hitting Google with the same question. They want to know where she’s from. Not just her hometown, but the actual roots that shaped her.
Honestly, the answer is a lot more interesting than a single label.
Morgan Radford is a Black American woman with a heritage that spans across the Caribbean. Specifically, she has Cuban and Jamaican roots. It’s a mix that she doesn’t just acknowledge; she lives it. Whether she’s reporting in fluent Spanish or discussing the nuances of the Afro-Latino experience, her background is the engine behind her journalism.
The Greensboro Roots vs. Global Heritage
Morgan was born on November 18, 1987, in Greensboro, North Carolina. If you just looked at her birth certificate, you might think "Southern girl" and call it a day. But her home was a melting pot. Her mother, Dr. Lily Kelly-Radford, is a powerhouse—a former clinical psychologist and management consultant who made sure Morgan and her brother, Miller, understood their place in a global context.
Her grandmother, Marcia, is actually the namesake for Morgan’s daughter, Adelana Marcia.
The Cuban side of her family is a huge part of her identity. You can hear it when she speaks. She isn’t just "school-taught" bilingual; she is culturally bilingual. She even got certified by the French Chamber of Commerce for business proficiency in French back in 2007.
She's basically a linguistic triple threat.
Why the "Afro-Latina" Label Matters
In the media world, people love to put you in a box. Are you Black? Are you Latina? For Morgan, the answer has always been "both." This isn't just a fun fact for a bio. It has dictated the stories she chooses to tell.
Think about her coverage of the normalization of US-Cuba relations or the death of Fidel Castro. For most reporters, that was a political assignment. For Radford, it was a trip into her own history. She has often spoken about how being Afro-Latina allows her to see the "cracks" in stories that others might miss.
- Jamaican Roots: Influencing her perspective on Caribbean migration and culture.
- Cuban Heritage: The source of her Spanish fluency and deep connection to Latin American politics.
- American Upbringing: Growing up in the South provided a front-row seat to the American civil rights narrative.
She’s mentioned in interviews that she feels like a "conduit." It’s actually why she and her husband, David Williams, named their daughter Adelana. It’s a Yoruban word that means "the conduit by which more good things are to come."
The Harvard and Fulbright Factor
You don't get to where she is just by having a cool background. She's incredibly decorated. She graduated from Harvard with honors, focusing on Social Studies and Foreign Language.
Then came the Fulbright.
She didn't head to a cozy European city. She went to Durban, South Africa. She spent a year teaching and, more importantly, documenting the lives of the people she met. She’s admitted that the documentary she shot there on an iPhone was probably "amateurish" by her current standards, but it was raw. It was that footage that helped her snag a full scholarship to Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
👉 See also: Big Daddy Kane Net Worth: What Most People Get Wrong
What People Get Wrong About Her Identity
The biggest misconception? That she’s "just" one thing.
In a 2024 segment on MSNBC, Radford spoke with multi-ethnic voters in North Carolina. She pointed out how society often tries to force biracial or multi-ethnic people to "choose a side." For her, the "side" is the intersection.
She married David Williams in January 2022. They didn't do a standard hotel wedding. They went to Cartagena, Colombia. If you want to see a celebration of ethnicity, look at those wedding photos. It was a literal merge of their cultures, set in a city that reflects the very Afro-Latino heritage she’s spent her career highlighting.
The "Now Then" Connection
If you really want to understand how she views her ethnicity, look at her debut novel, Now Then. Published by HarperCollins, the book is fiction, but it’s heavily inspired by her own life and her research into her family history.
The protagonist, Liliana Soto Walker, is a Harvard freshman with a Cuban immigrant mother and a Black American father. Sound familiar? It’s basically Morgan’s way of processing the complexities of being "too much" for some and "not enough" for others.
Quick stats on Morgan’s background:
- Languages: English, Spanish (Fluent), French (Proficient).
- Education: Harvard (BA), Columbia (MA), Fulbright Scholar.
- Cultural Identity: Black American, Cuban, Jamaican.
- Current Role: NBC News Correspondent and Anchor.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you're following Morgan's career because you're interested in how identity shapes storytelling, there are a few things you should do to get the full picture:
🔗 Read more: Kanye West and Bianca Censori at the Grammys: What Really Happened
- Watch her "Journey Into My Family's History" segments: NBC has archived several pieces where she goes into her own genealogy.
- Read Now Then: Especially the Spanish version if you can. It gives a much deeper look into the emotional side of being a "hyphenated" American.
- Follow her reporting on the Council on Foreign Relations: She’s a life member, and her takes on international policy are usually viewed through the lens of her diverse background.
Morgan Radford isn't just a face on the news. She’s a reminder that ethnicity isn't a static trait—it’s a lived experience that influences everything from the words she chooses to the way she interviews a world leader.