Terry Gross

Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by NPR. She has been in this position since 1975 and has conducted thousands of interviews over the 40 years working at the job.

Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests. She has a reputation for researching her guests' work largely the night before an interview, often asking them unexpected questions about their early careers.

Early life

Gross is the second child of Irving Gross and his wife Anne. She grew up in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her father worked in a family millinery business where he sold fabric to milliners. Her mother was a stenographer. She grew up in a Jewish family. She said that her family lived in an apartment near Senior's Restaurant, a local landmark. When she was young, people would often ask where Gross came from, assuming that her lack of a heavy Brooklyn accent meant she grew up elsewhere. Gross' parents were first generation Americans, with family roots in eastern Europe. She has an older brother, Leon J. Gross, who is five years older, and who works as a psychometric consultant.