About Tanya McRae
Tanya was born on the island of Manhattan and grew up in Amherst and Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was always very active in sports including basketball, horseback riding, gymnastics, track, and softball. She received a BA from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania where as a freshman she was the starting center for the Women’s Varsity Basketball team and competed as an award winning member of Penn’s Equestrian Team.
Tanya began her career in television on the assignment desks at ABC “World News Tonight” and “Nightline” in New York. Then she worked at the local WPIX station then onto one of many shows she would produce for Lifetime Television, the talk show “New Attitudes”. After a visit to California, Tanya fell in love with the year round sunshine and accepted a position as the host and producer of the award winning Time Warner Cable community affairs program in Los Angeles, “In Hot Pursuit: South Bay’s Most Wanted”.
Tanya went on to become a field producer and director, and spent the next decade working on docu-series, reality, lifestyle, travel, newsmagazine and talk shows. Some of her favorites were “The World’s Best” on Travel Channel, “Truth” on MTV, the “Leeza” and “Vibe” talk shows, “Girls Behaving Badly” for Oxygen where she produced segments for Chelsea Handler, and “Channel One News” where she worked closely with young reporters like Maria Menounos, Gotham Chopra, Laura Ling, and Errol Barnett – all of whom have made it big since then.
In 2005 Tanya decided to return to her news roots and moved to Palm Springs, CA to work as a reporter and fill-in anchor for the NBC affiliate, KMIR 6. Over the course of three years Tanya received two Emmy Award nominations for her stories, and became the lead reporter on breaking news, human interest stories and an education series. She was often asked to be the Mistress of Ceremonies at local parades, and Emcee conferences for organizations such as Palm Springs Women in Film & Television and the Women’s Leader Forum.
Tanya established Amazonia Productions in 2008 and launched the syndicated lifestyle television show, “Spotlight On The Desert”. She was the Executive Producer and Host, and gave viewers an inside look at the amazing historical locations, resorts, restaurants, art galleries and events in the Palm Springs area. It aired nationally on DIRECTV and locally on Time Warner Cable.
She returned to Los Angeles in 2010 to produce popular shows like “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo, “Bring It” on Lifetime, and “For Peete’s Sake on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In 2015 Tanya received a Daytime Emmy Award as Senior Producer for the OWN series “Home Made Simple” in the Outstanding Lifestyle Program category.
In 2018 Tanya returned to her news roots and is currently a Reporter and Multimedia Journalist for Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles. In 2020 she was promoted to Anchor and Host of the network’s public affairs show “In Focus Socal.”
About Tanya McRae
Tanya was born on the island of Manhattan and grew up in Amherst and Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was always very active in sports including basketball, horseback riding, gymnastics, track, and softball. She received a BA from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania where as a freshman she was the starting center for the Women’s Varsity Basketball team and competed as an award winning member of Penn’s Equestrian Team.
Tanya began her career in television on the assignment desks at ABC “World News Tonight” and “Nightline” in New York. Then she worked at the local WPIX station then onto one of many shows she would produce for Lifetime Television, the talk show “New Attitudes”. After a visit to California, Tanya fell in love with the year round sunshine and accepted a position as the host and producer of the award winning Time Warner Cable community affairs program in Los Angeles, “In Hot Pursuit: South Bay’s Most Wanted”.
Tanya went on to become a field producer and director, and spent the next decade working on docu-series, reality, lifestyle, travel, newsmagazine and talk shows. Some of her favorites were “The World’s Best” on Travel Channel, “Truth” on MTV, the “Leeza” and “Vibe” talk shows, “Girls Behaving Badly” for Oxygen where she produced segments for Chelsea Handler, and “Channel One News” where she worked closely with young reporters like Maria Menounos, Gotham Chopra, Laura Ling, and Errol Barnett – all of whom have made it big since then.
In 2005 Tanya decided to return to her news roots and moved to Palm Springs, CA to work as a reporter and fill-in anchor for the NBC affiliate, KMIR 6. Over the course of three years Tanya received two Emmy Award nominations for her stories, and became the lead reporter on breaking news, human interest stories and an education series. She was often asked to be the Mistress of Ceremonies at local parades, and Emcee conferences for organizations such as Palm Springs Women in Film & Television and the Women’s Leader Forum.
Tanya established Amazonia Productions in 2008 and launched the syndicated lifestyle television show, “Spotlight On The Desert”. She was the Executive Producer and Host, and gave viewers an inside look at the amazing historical locations, resorts, restaurants, art galleries and events in the Palm Springs area. It aired nationally on DIRECTV and locally on Time Warner Cable.
She returned to Los Angeles in 2010 to produce popular shows like “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo, “Bring It” on Lifetime, and “For Peete’s Sake on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In 2015 Tanya received a Daytime Emmy Award as Senior Producer for the OWN series “Home Made Simple” in the Outstanding Lifestyle Program category.
In 2018 Tanya returned to her news roots and is currently a Reporter and Multimedia Journalist for Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles. In 2020 she was promoted to Anchor and Host of the network’s public affairs show “In Focus Socal.”