Ari Odzer is a nine-time Emmy® award-winning journalist and is currently the NBC 6 education reporter. Odzer joined the station in January of 1990 as a general assignment reporter. In 1994, he briefly worked for sister station WNBC in New York and returned to WTVJ in 1995. Odzer joined WTVJ from WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach where he was an anchor and reporter for three years.
During his time at WTVJ, Odzer has covered all major hurricanes since Andrew in 1992. Some of the big stories he’s covered include: the Elian Gonzalez controversy, 2000 presidential elections recount, the murder of Gianni Versace and the manhunt for his murderer, Andrew Cunanan, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, COVID-19 pandemic and the Surfside tragedy.
In 2014, Odzer established Education on 6 as a brand, with a focus on education features and issues. Throughout the pandemic, he covered all facets of distance learning, mask mandates, safety protocols, teacher and parent concerns, and learning deficits. Odzer says he finds education stories to be particularly rewarding, especially when highlighting the achievements of outstanding students.
Odzer, whose father was in the Air Force, was born in Izmir, Turkey. A self-proclaimed Air Force brat, his family finally settled in Pompano Beach when he was in the 5th grade.
Graduating from Deerfield Beach High School in 1982, Odzer received his Bachelor of Science in broadcast news with a minor in political science in 1987 from the University of Florida. He also began his broadcast career while in college, working as a reporter and anchor at WUFT-FM, in Gainesville. While in Gainesville, he also worked as a reporter and anchor at the CBS affiliate WRUF-AM and made the crossover into television by working as a reporter, anchor and photographer at the PBS affiliate WUFT-TV.
Today, Odzer lives with his wife, Dr. Shari-Lynn Odzer, in northeast Miami-Dade County. He has two daughters, Jamie and Nicole, who are currently medical students and a son, Michael, who is currently entering his sophomore year of college. A high school basketball player, he still plays a weekly full court pickup game.
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