Cenk Uygur

Uygur in 2015, photo by Debby Wong/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Cenk Kadir Uygur

Place of Birth: Istanbul, Turkey

Date of Birth: March 21, 1970

Ethnicity: Turkish

Cenk Uygur is a Turkish-American businessperson, columnist, journalist, political activist, and host. He created and leads news and commentary program The Young Turks, which airs a left-wing/progressive sociopolitical perspective. He also co-founded progressive political action committee Justice Democrats. He hosted the show MSNBC Live in 2011, and has also been a commenator on the network; and hosted a show on Current TV from 2011 to 2013, where he was chief news officer.

He was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 2024; though he was not eligible to serve.

Cenk was born in Istanbul, and moved to the U.S. when he was eight, settling in East Brunswick, New Jersey. He is fluent in Turkish. His nephew is Twitch streamer and left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker. Cenk was raised Muslim, and identifies as an agnostic and a cultural Muslim. He was an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Cenk is married to marriage and family therapist Wendy Lang, with whom he has two children.

He was the first person of Turkish heritage to mount a campaign for a major party’s presidential nomination.