Biography
Cenk Kadir Uygur was born on March 21, 1970, in Istanbul, Turkey, and moved to the United States with his family in 1978. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Columbia Law School, and worked briefly as an attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York before moving into broadcasting.
In 2002, Uygur co-created The Young Turks (TYT) as a call-in radio program on Sirius Satellite Radio, later expanding it to YouTube in 2005. TYT is widely credited as one of the first internet-native news shows and has grown into one of the largest independent political commentary networks online, co-hosted for most of its run by Ana Kasparian. Uygur briefly appeared on MSNBC as a commentator in 2010 and hosted a nightly show on Current TV from 2011 to 2013.
In January 2017, Uygur co-founded Justice Democrats, a political action committee built to back primary challengers against establishment Democrats; the group’s early recruits included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He also founded Wolf PAC, an organization focused on campaign-finance reform through a state-led constitutional convention.
Uygur has run for elected office twice: in 2020, he sought the Democratic nomination in California’s 25th congressional district, finishing fourth in a crowded field; and in 2023–24, he mounted a long-shot Democratic primary challenge to President Biden, a campaign that also raised unresolved constitutional questions given his status as a naturalized rather than natural-born citizen. He continues to host TYT’s daily news and commentary program from Los Angeles.
The Young Turks
The Young Turks airs live on weekdays, mixing news coverage with progressive commentary on Congress, elections, and the Democratic Party’s internal fights. The network has amassed billions of views across its channels and describes itself as the largest online progressive news show in the world.
Uygur has used the platform to press the Democratic Party toward more consistently progressive positions — on money in politics, healthcare, and party leadership — and to cover contested primaries between progressive challengers and establishment-backed incumbents, including recent Senate and House races.
Videos
Cenk Gets CANDID With Members
Cenk & Jordan Uhl on the Maine Senate primary polling
Cenk & Ana Kasparian interview a 2026 Senate candidate
On founding The Young Turks & covering progressive politics — Useful Idiots
In the press
- Wikipedia
- Ballotpedia
- Wikipedia
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The Young Turks
Watch on YouTube daily