Amiable entertainment reporter to some, insufferable TV twit to others (including Billy Crystal, who dubbed him "the most annoying man in show business" at the 2004 Academy Awards), Bush could have pursued politics like his uncle George H.W. or his cousin George W. Instead, he opted for the world of entertainment, starting out in radio. In 1997, he made a splash on his relatives' turf as the host of the Washington, D.C., gag-happy morning show
Billy Bush and the Bush League, but it was a 2001 appearance on the entertainment-news program
Extra that led to Bush's small-screen career. The pretty boy was a natural on camera and was soon invited to contribute segments to
Today. By the end of that year he was working as an
Access Hollywood correspondent, and in 2004 he was promoted to full-fledged coanchor. Unafraid to pose outrageous questions or poke fun at celebrities' images — he served pizza to Victoria's Secret models and asked Penélope Cruz if she could spell then-boyfriend Matthew McConaughey's surname — Bush was impossible to ignore, alternately provoking giggles or ire from interviewees and viewers alike. After emceeing numerous specials, including beauty pageants and award-show countdowns, Bush landed a Ryan Seacrest-type gig as the cohost of the Broadway reality series
Grease: You're the One That I Want in 2007.
Billy Bush Fast Facts:
- Although he is the youngest of 16 Bush family cousins (U.S. President George W. Bush is the second oldest), he is publicly apolitical.
- Was captain of the lacrosse team for two seasons at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Once he played against the nephew of former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, his uncle George H.W. Bush's opponent in the 1988 election.
- In 2001, just weeks after he was invited to join Access Hollywood as East Coast correspondent, CNN offered him a job as morning co-anchor opposite Paula Zahn. He chose the former gig.
- Billy Bush Relationships:
- Alexander Ellis III - Cousin
- Alexander Ellis Jr. - Uncle
- Barbara Bush - Aunt
- Dorothy Bush Koch - Cousin
- Dorothy Walker Bush - Grandmother
- Elizabeth Kauffman Bush - Aunt
- George H.W. Bush - Uncle
- George W. Bush - Cousin
- James L. Bush - Cousin
- Jeb Bush - Cousin
- John Prescott Bush - Cousin
- Jonathan James Bush - Father
- Jonathan S. Bush - Brother
- Josephine Bush - Mother
- Josephine Bush - Daughter
- Josiah Wear Ellis - Cousin
- Kelsey Bush - Cousin
- Lillie Bush - Daughter
- Louisa Bush - Cousin
- Marvin Pierce Bush - Cousin
- Mary Bradley Bush - Daughter
- Nancy Bush Ellis - Aunt
- Nancy Walker Black - Cousin
- Neil Mallon Bush - Cousin
- Patricia Lee Redfern - Aunt
- Prescott S. Bush Jr. - Uncle
- Prescott Sheldon Bush - Grandfather
- Prescott Sheldon Bush III - Cousin
- Robin Bush - Cousin
- Sydney Davis Bush - Wife
- William Harry Trotter Bush - Uncle
- William Prescott Bush - Cousin
- College:
- Colby College, Waterville, ME (BA in International Studies and Government, 1994)
