Media mogul Oprah Winfrey is one of the most powerful women and well known faces in the world. But back in 1983, she was simply a young TV host looking to take the step into morning television.
Oprah’s staff recently located her original audition tape, and now we can all see the awkward young Oprah striving to make her way in the world like the rest of us mere mortals. Unsurprisingly, Oprah is appears as warm-hearted and approachable as ever in the audition tape below.
Emmerging as the successful applicant for the role on AM Chicago, Oprah made the program the highest rating talk show in Chicago, eventually (in 1986) resulting in its being renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.
‘In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of ample bulk,’ wrote TIME magazine when The Oprah Winfrey Show became an national hit. ‘What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plain-spoken curiosity, robust humour and, above all empathy.
Watch some more of our favourite celebrity audition tapes below:
We can’t believe how adorable Miley Cyrus was back when she auditioned for Hannah Montana
Emma Stone was a stand out performer as always when she auditioned for Easy A
Here, a young Natalie Portman auditions for Leon: The Professional
Below, an assortment of iconic actors and actresses audition for their first roles
