In a career spanning more than 20 years, Alex Cullen has done it all – covering everything from the devastating illegal bear bile trade in Vietnam to sitting at the piano with Lionel Richie in his Beverly Hills home. Alex has since swapped passport stamps for a 3:30am alarm clock to present Nine News Early every weekday at 5am followed by anchoring Today Show sport from 5:30am.
A country boy at heart, Alex has been lucky enough to interview some of the world’s biggest stars including Olivia Newton-John, Ricky Gervais, Jon Bon Jovi, Stevie Nicks, and cover some of the world’s major news and sporting events.
He rates the Japan tsunami in 2011 as one of his toughest assignments. Alex was one of the first on the ground – and last to leave – covering the devastating aftermath of Japan’s worst natural disaster in living memory.
The 43-year-old started his TV career with 7 News as a general reporter in Perth in 2006 and moved up the ranks to become the nightly sports presenter in Sydney in early 2009, reading the sport alongside legendary newsreader Ian Ross.
Before joining the Seven Network, Alex was the news reporter and sport presenter at Golden West News in Bunbury, Western Australia. He first made the move to WA in 2004, when he landed a job as a reporter in the famous gold mining town of Kalgoorlie.
Alex’s first big break into television happened in 2003 when he walked into Prime7 News in Wagga Wagga, NSW with a spare CV. The rest, as they say, is history.
Alex grew up on a mixed farming property near Coonamble in western New South Wales. From an early age, he wanted a career in media after recording himself commentating imaginary tennis and footy matches on an old cassette player. Alex’s career started in radio where he presented the weekend morning news on ABC Central West in Orange and was an announcer at 2BS and B-Rock FM while completing a journalism degree at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. He also started taking casual shifts at 2GB in Sydney reading the weekend overnight news and working as a weekend reporter.
In 2019, after nearly a decade travelling the world – from the Czech Republic to New Zealand and everywhere in between – with public affairs program Sunday Night, the versatile and popular presenter joined the Today Show alongside Karl Stefanovic, Sarah Abo, Brooke Boney and Tim Davies. Alex is now back at the Nine Network where it all began with regular stints of work experience at A Current Affair in the late 90’s with Mike Munro.
Alex is dedicated to finding a cure for brain cancer and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Cure Brain Cancer and RCD Foundations. Brain cancer is a cause close to Alex’s heart after his father Tom lost his two-year battle with the disease in February 2018.
This year, Alex will realise his childhood dream of covering an Olympic and Paralympic games when the 9 Network and Wide World of Sports host Paris 2024.
Alex is married to The Australian Financial Review reporter Bonnie Campbell and dad to twin girls Audrey and Evie along with their youngest son Max.
