Anyone who tuned into MTV in the 1990s got at least some of their news from Tabitha Soren, one of the network's most ubiquitous journalists. Though she was already a part of music video history as a teenager after appearing in the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" clip, it was in her early 20s that the young reporter became a fixture on the network as herself. According to a 1993 New York Times piece on her, Soren deserves credit not only for being one of the faces of MTV taking current events and youth issues seriously but also an originator of the idea. In 1991, in a meeting about the upcoming presidential campaign, Soren reportedly asked, "How about if we just cover this like real reporters?" The "Choose or Lose" campaign was born, and Soren went on interview everyone from Bill Clinton to Mariah Carey for the channel.
While she's certainly still recognizable to fans as MTV's trusty redheaded anchor, Soren, now 54, has moved on to a much different career. Read on to find out what she's up to today.
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A famous rumor about her has been totally debunked.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesYou may remembering hearing a story about Soren making a certain embarrassing faux pas in an MTV interview, but try to remember whether you actually saw it happen.
You didn't, because it never took place.
The same 1993 Times profile makes mention of gossip columnist Liz Smith writing that Soren misunderstood a reference Clinton, who had just been sworn in as president, made to jazz legend Thelonius Monk. The story goes that the MTV News personality afterwards said, without irony, "So far we have not been able to find the person he wants to play with—the Loneliest Monk."
"Because of my association with MTV and because I'm a young woman, people are always waiting for some ditzy comment," Soren told the Times. "They didn't get it through the whole campaign, so they made one up."
The paper notes that Smith admitted in print that her own story had been "based on a rumor."
Her influence stretched beyond MTV.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesIn addition to hosting MTV newscasts and specials, including Unplugged and Generation Under the Gun, Soren appeared onscreen in other capacities. She played herself in the 1996 comedy The Cable Guy and the 1997 sci-fi movie Contact. And because footage from her interviews and broadcasts are part of the historical record at this point, you can spot her in documentaries on subjects from the death of Tupac Shakur to the legacy of Generation X.
Much more recent footage of Soren can also be seen in the 2021 documentary Tell Them We Were Here, about a group of artists in San Francisco, which is more tied to her new career.
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She's a photographer.
Town & Country noted in a 2019 profile of the former MTV News star that "in recent years, Soren has made a name for herself as a photographer with an eye for documenting seemingly small moments that can offer outsized revelations about the human condition."
Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the country. Her photographs are also collected in photography books, which you can purchase on Soren's website.
In her artist bio, Soren indicates that her news background has come in handy in her artistic pursuits as well. "Though a palpable sense of pathos connects all her images, Soren begins each new series using the methodical investigative tools she used during her time in journalism," the bio states.
On Twitter, the artist shares updates on where her work is being shown.
She's a mom.
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicSoren has been married to bestselling author Michael Lewis—who wrote The Blind Side, The Big Short, and Moneyball, among other books—since 1997. The couple welcomed three children: Quinn, Dixie, and Walker. Tragically, Dixie and her boyfriend Ross Schultz, were killed in a car crash in 2021. Dixie was 19.
“A hole has been blown in our lives,” Lewis said on the podcast The Dishcast With Andrew Sullivan a few months later, as reported by SF Gate. “The question is what do you grow in that hole and how do you grow from this experience?"
In April of this year, Soren shared photos from Dixie's birth on Twitter, along with the caption, "Dixie would have turned 20 today. I am gutted but I am so lucky that she spent 19.2 years with me."
