KHOU’s Chau Nguyen Award Winning Reporter / Anchor



Chau Nguyen is KHOU-TV’s general assignments reporter and Saturday morning anchor.

Her career began early in college when she was asked to take a full-time desk editor position at KRIV-TV, Houston’s Fox Network affiliate. It was a job that launched a television news career and took her halfway around the world and back. In 2000, Chau travelled to Vietnam to cover a medical mission. Her series reporting earned her a regional Emmy award.

Chau transitioned to on-air responsibilities in 1996 as an anchor and reporter in Guam and Saipan. She returned to Houston in 1998 to report for KRIV-TV, then spent three years reporting for WGCL-TV in Atlanta before joining KHOU.

When and how did you come to America? Do you still have family in Vietnam?

"My family, like many Vietnamese families here, emigrated from Saigon to escape the war. We were among the first wave of refugees to settle in Houston and Texas. My mother’s entire side of the family still lives in Saigon, which includes my grandmother, two aunts, three uncles, and several cousins."

What is your family and your education, and what is it like to be a working journalist in America, compared to what it would be like in Vietnam?

"I come from a family of four siblings, me being the youngest, with an older sister and two brothers. My father served in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam and most people know my father as a songwriter, Song Ngoc that has brought shows to Las Vegas, but I just know him as a great dad.

"My mother was always a very traditional Vietnamese housewife and conservative mother. My relationship with her is what a mother daughter connection is supposed to be.

" I am BA graduate of the University of St. Thomas I am very grateful for the good fortune I have had in my professional career here in the United States where a working journalist has the liberty to write at will and the privilege to provide a voice to the voiceless. I suppose in Vietnam those opportunities might not present themselves as freely."

Did your father’s careers in public service and public performance inspire your career?

"My father is a very creative man, who writes both of love and human tragedy. That, in and of itself, is a true inspiration to me.

And I suppose in some ways, my world has been much of the same. While music skipped a generation, the ability of expressionism and compassion did not.

How did you come to your position at KHOU?

"It has been a great journey which started in college, with stints in Guam, Saipan and Atlanta. Four years ago, a good friend and colleague, Jeff McShan, encouraged me to begin a dialogue with KHOU. The rest they say is history."

As a Vietnamese American woman, what are your specific challenges in fitting in?

"I think the biggest challenge is balance between retaining your roots while acculturating into American life. Both have advantages and disadvantages of course."

Which stories are you most proud for having participated?

"In 2000, I followed a group of medical missionaries into the remote southern provinces of Vietnam and will be forever touched by the plight of our people. Experiences change you, and that experience brought to higher awareness of compassion and understanding.

What’s it like having your presence under the intense public scrutiny of being a public personality?

"The disadvantage of being a public person, I suppose is the often misunderstanding of who you are. I think television gives off a glamorized perception. I consider myself to be just a working journalist who doesn’t revel much, if at all, on being in the limelight."

Can you tell us what you enjoy most about working in the Houston market?

"Houston is a most wonderful environment to call home. Being raised in Houston, I am so humbled when I run into a familiar face, reconnect with the people from our Vietnamese community who have known me from childhood and work with colleagues of whom I’ve know for many years. Every week in Saigon Tex News I see people I know as friends from here in Houston and that means a lot to me."

Are there stories to share on your family life or your interest in sports?

"Every one of my siblings has taken on different career pursuits, from a Karate instructor, to a police officer, to a title research associate.

As for personal activities, I’m an anomaly. I am an avid traveler and scuba diver, have raced in five marathons and just currently completed a half iron man distance triathlon. In September of 2007, I will face my biggest physical challenge yet, a full iron man distance race!"

How’s your Vietnamese?

"My Vietnamese is always a work in progress because I grew up here and not there. I can speak and understand on a limited basis, but I continue to study our language through private tutoring. It is important to me. It is a priority to me and something I will continue to work on improving."

How will you and your family celebrate Thanksgiving?

"My parents will be in town (they recently moved) and it looks like we’ll be spending it at my brother’s home. Of course, I will be there after I finish working live on television. All of us in my family and my greater Houston, Texas and America family have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving as we do every Thanksgiving."

"My family is an immigrant family that shares a lot with the initial pilgrims in what it was they were thankful for, how and why they celebrated."


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