| Birth Date: | 21 August 1994 | ||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Newtown, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Alma Mater: | Boston University | ||||||||||||
| Occupation: | Podcaster | ||||||||||||
| Years Active: | 2018–present | ||||||||||||
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Alexandra Cooper (born August 21, 1994) is an American podcaster and co-creator and host of Call Her Daddy, a weekly comedy and advice podcast on Spotify. In 2021, Time Magazine called her "arguably the most successful woman in podcasting" after she signed a three-year exclusive deal with Spotify worth $60 million.[1] Making $20 million per year made her Spotify's highest earning female podcaster and the second-highest paid podcaster, behind only Joe Rogan.[2] The show was also the second most popular podcast globally on Spotify for 2022 behind Rogan.[3] [4]
Rolling Stone labeled her "Gen-Z's Barbara Walters" for frequently enlisting high-profile Hollywood talent and influential individuals in American popular culture to be guests on her podcast.[5] In 2023, Cooper was named to the Time 100 Next list.[6]
Cooper was born in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and is the youngest of three siblings. Her father is a TV sports producer and her mother is a psychologist.[7]
She attended The Pennington School in Mercer County, New Jersey, and matriculated at Boston University, where she studied film and television in 2013 while playing on the school's Division I soccer team.[8] She graduated in 2017 from the College of Communication.
After college, she moved to New York City and worked in advertising sales. In 2018, Cooper and her roommate, Sofia Franklyn, created the Call Her Daddy podcast. One month after its first episode, it was acquired by Barstool Sports.[9] The podcast rapidly increased in popularity, with downloads rising from 12,000 to 2 million in two months.[10]
In 2021, she signed a three-year exclusive deal with Spotify worth $60 million.[11] Beatriz Serrano writes "without Sofia, Alexandra decided to go for a Call Her Daddy where the second voice was always provided by her guests."
Since signing with the music streaming service, she "has steadily grown in stature," according to Vanity Fair,[12] which reported that "her show [is] an increasingly common forum for celebrity interviews and the leading archetype in a large ecosystem of podcasts centered on relationships and advice."
In 2023, Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, noted Cooper's podcast is driving engagement of younger women with the service, helping to drive its recent surge in year-over-year monthly active users and revenue by 27% and 11% respectively.[13]
Spotify's data show that guest appearances on Cooper's podcast's led to dramatic spikes in musician's streaming numbers. Anitta’s streams rose 155%, Madison Beer’s climbed 130%, John Legend's 200%, and John Mayer's 350%.
In September 2023, she started The Unwell Network, a podcast network to partner with Spotify’s enterprise platform, Megaphone, for the hosting and distribution of popular podcasts, signing Alix Earle and Madeline Argy for 'Hot Mess with Alix Earle' and 'Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy.'[14] [15] [16]
On September 21, 2023, Earle debuted her first episode, landing 1st on The Podcast Charts, with Cooper in 2nd.[17] On, October 2, 2023, Argy debuted her first episode, reaching the top 5 on The Podcast Charts within the week.
In August 2024, Cooper signed a $125 million, three-year deal with Sirius XM which is set to replace Spotify as her distribution and advertising partner.[18]
Cooper discusses her personal life on her show, which includes having gone out with numerous well-known men.
In 2023, Cooper became engaged to producer Matt Kaplan. They married on April 6, 2024, in Riviera Maya, Mexico.[19]