Ricardo León Sánchez de Reinaldo

He was born in Guanabacoa, a municipality of Havana, Cuba. He arrived in the United States with his parents at the age of two years old.

His family did not speak any English and as a result of this, Sanchez suffered firsthand racism and discrimination since childhood. His father worked in a factory, washing dishes and driving trucks. Sanchez remembers that in the past he was told that he could not perform certain tasks or pursue certain careers simply because he was Hispanic. For this reason he decided to change his name from Ricardo León Sánchez de Reinaldo, to Rick Sanchez.

He grew up in the Hialeah area, Florida, an enclave of the Cuban community in Miami. He won a scholarship at Moorhead University, in the state of Minnesota, to play American football. Later, in 1979, he moved to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis thanks to a journalism scholarship granted by CBS/WCCO.

On December 10, 1990, while driving his car with his father after leaving a Miami Dolphins game, he hit Jeffrey Smuzinick with his car. Sanchez left the scene, but returned a few hours later.

Smuzinick was left paralyzed, and five years later died in a care facility at the age of 36 years. The police analyzed and determined that Sanchez's blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol but was not charged with hitting Smuzinick.

He began his journalism career in satellite radio, at KCMT WCCO in Alexandria, Minnesota, when he was still a student. In 1992 he was hired by WSVN in Miami and became a presenter. In 2001 he worked for a time for MSNBC and returned to the television market in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. He became host of a local talk show on the WTVJ station.

Sanchez moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where CNN is headquartered, to join the network in September 2004. For eight months he was a presenter on the program 'Out in the Open'. Also on occasions, he came to replace Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi on the program 'Your Money'.

Sanchez participated in the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and on several occasions he was on the verge of tears before the cameras. He was a presenter for eight hours, broadcasting the latest news from the moment the levees broke in New Orleans, Louisiana. The next day he was taken to the scene where he reported live for CNN. For his work he was awarded the 'Peabody Award'.

Rick Sanchez was described as a polarizing figure at CNN, but despite this in January 2010 he was given his own two-hour program called 'Rick's List'. The innovative format of the program gave viewers the opportunity to send comments and opinions about the day's news through social media Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Some controversial comments of his brought his career at the network to an end.

On September 30, in an interview with Pete Dominick on his radio program 'Stand Up With Pete Dominick', he called John Stewart, the host of the 'Daily Show' program, "intolerant". In the same interview he said that all CNN executives were the same as John Stewart, alluding to his Jewish origins.

Sanchez backtracked on his comment and instead used "harmful" and "uninformed" to describe Stewart. However, on October 1, 2010 he was fired.

The host is married to Suzanne Sanchez, and they have three boys and one girl, Ricky Jr., Robby, Remington, and Savannah.