Sanjay Gupta

Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at the Emory University School of Medicine, member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is the chief medical correspondent for CNN.

Gupta is known for his many TV appearances on health-related issues. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, he has been a frequent contributor to numerous CNN shows covering the crisis, as well as hosting a weekly town hall with Anderson Cooper. Gupta was the host of the CNN show Sanjay Gupta MD for which he has won multiple Emmy Awards. 

Gupta also hosted the 6 part mini-series Chasing Life. He is a frequent contributor to other CNN programs such as American Morning, Larry King Live, CNN Tonight, and Anderson Cooper 360°. His reports from Charity Hospital New Orleans, Louisiana, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, led to him winning a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast. He is also a special correspondent for CBS News.

Sanjay Gupta also co-hosts the health conference Life Itself, along with Marc Hodosh (co-creator of TEDMED). Gupta published a column in Time magazine and has written four books: Chasing Life, Cheating Death, Monday Mornings: A Novel, and Keep Sharp (Jan 2021).

Gupta was born in Novi, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. In the 1960s, Gupta's parents, Subhash and Damyanti Gupta moved from India prior to their marriage and met in Livonia, Michigan, where they worked as engineers for Ford Motor Company. His mother was born in the village of Tharushah in Sindh (now Pakistan), but at age 5, she fled to India as a Hindu refugee during the Partition of India. 

Gupta and his younger brother Suneel graduated from Novi High School. Gupta went on to receive his Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1993. He was part of Interflex, a since discontinued accelerated medical education program that accepted medical students directly from high school.

As an undergraduate, Gupta worked as an orientation leader for the freshman orientation program and was a member of the Men's Glee Club. He also served as president of the Indian American Students Association (IASA), which is now the second-largest student organization at the university. Gupta completed his residency in neurological surgery at the University of Michigan Health System in 2000, followed by a fellowship at the Semmes Murphy Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. Gupta plays the accordion, having taken ten years of lessons, as he noted in an interview with David Hochman for Playboy.