PERSON: Zoe Tur

Journalist

Hanna Zoey Tur, known professionally by the name Zoey Tur (born Robert Albert “Bob” Tur, June 8, 1960), is an American broadcast reporter best known for designing and building one of the first modern news helicopters used for live news reporting. As a broadcast reporter, and eventual 10,000 hour commercial pilot, Tur created the Los Angeles News Service with fellow reporter, and former wife, Marika Gerrard. Their news service was the first to use an AStar helicopter in a major city for the coverage of live breaking news, and the first to televise a high-speed police chase. Other noteworthy reporting included the attack on Reginald Denny during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Tur was also the first to locate and televise O. J. Simpson’s infamous slow-speed chase in 1994.

As a team, Tur and ex-wife Marika Gerrard received three Television News Emmy Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast excellence (for her reporting on the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and a feature on American Jews leaving their homes for Israel at a time of war); an Associated Press National Breaking News award; The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Humanitarian Award, several Golden Mikes; and numerous other local and national citations.

In February 2015, Tur was hired by Inside Edition to appear on three episodes only, becoming the first openly transgender television reporter on American television. In February and March 2015, Tur appeared on CNN, TMZ, and on Dr. Drew On Call on HLN.