Rachel Maddow (born April 1, 1973, in Castro Valley, California, U.S.) is an American political commentator, television host, and radio personality best known as the host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" (2008– ) on the cable news channel MSNBC. Maddow grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area with her father, an attorney, and her mother, a school administrator. She attended Stanford University, where she earned a B.A. in public policy in 1994. As a senior she received the John Gardner Fellowship for public service, which allowed her to work with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel in San Francisco and become involved in prison AIDS advocacy. During her time at Stanford she publicly came out as a lesbian by posting an open letter throughout her dormitory. In 1995 Maddow went to the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her doctorate (D.Phil.) in politics in 2001. Her dissertation examined HIV/AIDS and health care reform in British and American prisons. Before finishing her degree, Maddow returned to the United States and settled in western Massachusetts. While continuing her prison AIDS advocacy and completing her dissertation, she held a variety of jobs. Her broadcasting career began after she answered an open audition at a local radio station in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for a “news girl” on a morning program. She won the position and served as the host’s on-air sidekick before eventually receiving her own show on a Northampton station. In 2004 a friend passed recordings of Maddow’s work to producers at Air America, a newly formed liberal talk radio network. She was hired as a news reader and soon became co-host of "Unfiltered" with Lizz Winstead and Chuck D. After the program ended in 2005, she was given her own weekday program, "The Rachel Maddow Show," which later expanded from one hour to two. Through her radio work she developed a reputation as a knowledgeable and policy-focused commentator. While continuing on radio, Maddow began appearing on MSNBC in 2005 as a guest on Tucker Carlson’s political talk program, where she frequently debated conservative viewpoints. Over the following years she appeared regularly on various cable news and political discussion programs. After Carlson’s show ended in 2008, Maddow became a frequent guest host on MSNBC’s "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Her television program, "The Rachel Maddow Show," premiered on MSNBC on September 8, 2008, combining news coverage, political commentary, and interviews with figures from politics, culture, and academia. The program quickly became one of the network’s most prominent political shows. In addition to broadcasting, Maddow has written several books. Her first, "Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power" (2012), examined U.S. military policy since the Vietnam War. She later published "Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth" (2019), about the global oil and gas industry, and "Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House" (2020), written with Michael Yarvitz and based on her podcast about former U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew.
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Biography from TMDB.
- April 1, 1973 (53)
- Castro Valley, California, USA
- Actor and producer
- 9 on MovieCove · 17 credits in all
What are Rachel Maddow's films like?
Across their 8 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 5
A split, not a type: Light 1 · Serious 1 · Dark 3
Grounded 5 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 1 · Charged 2 · Intense 2
Steady 2 · Shifting 3 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 1
A split, not a type: Slow burn 3 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 3 · Full focus 1
A split, not a type: Easy watch 2 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 4 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet6
- Ambiguous1
- Cyclical1
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Rachel Maddow's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Hulu (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Rachel Maddow's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
17 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page; 38 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Kill. Bury. Print.(2026)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Andrew Young: The Dirty Work (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2025)
From Russia with Lev (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
Red, White & Royal Blue(2023)
Midcredits score: 86th percentile of all films
Away(2020)
Midcredits score: 33rd percentile of all shows
Pandemic: The People, The Conspiracy, The Journey (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2020)
Batwoman(2019)
Midcredits score: 1st percentile of all shows
Alpha House(2013)
Midcredits score: 74th percentile of all shows
The Ides of March(2011)
Midcredits score: 82nd percentile of all filmsDay of Destruction, Decade of War (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2011)
30 Rock(2006)
Midcredits score: 92nd percentile of all shows
Ugly Betty(2006)
Midcredits score: 40th percentile of all shows
The Colbert Report (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2005)
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1992)
The Simpsons(1989)
Midcredits score: 96th percentile of all showsBag Man (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Ultra (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
Star power in the 69th percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 17 titles, 15 of them dated from 1989 to 2026; peak year 2023.
Biggest box office
Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (2019)
Highest rated
Kill. Bury. Print. (2026)
Most popular right now
Batwoman (2019)
Film career
Peak 2023 · steadily prominent in film for years. Film roles by billing, audience size and rating; 25+ votes. A show carries a single first-air date, so shows are not on the curve.
- 2011Screen debut· The Ides of March
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Rachel Maddow's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 83rd percentile, the median of all 3; across their 5 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 79th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up5
- 50th to 74th1
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
5 of their 9 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved2
- Divisive1
- Crowd Pleaser5
- Mixed1
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Rachel Maddow work with?
People who share at least 2 of Rachel Maddow's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Katy Drake Bettner shares the most, 2.
Producers
- Katy Drake BettnerShared titles: The Fight (2020), Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (2019)See all 2 shared titles with Katy Drake Bettner
- Leslie BerrimanShared titles: The Fight (2020), Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (2019)See all 2 shared titles with Leslie Berriman
- Nion McEvoyShared titles: The Fight (2020), Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (2019)See all 2 shared titles with Nion McEvoy
