Richard Engel is the Chief Foreign Correspondent for NBC News, a role he assumed on April 18, 2008, after joining the network in May 2003 as Middle East correspondent and serving as Beirut bureau chief. Born on September 16, 1973, in New York City, New York, Engel was diagnosed with dyslexia in his youth and did not pursue a traditional college education. Instead, he developed fluency in multiple languages, including Arabic, Italian, and Spanish, through self-study and immersion. At age 29, he relocated to Cairo, Egypt, where he taught English and began freelancing as a journalist, covering the Middle East for outlets like ABC News and 'The World' (a BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH production) from 2001 to 2003. He gained prominence reporting on the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq from Baghdad as a freelancer. Engel is also an author and has produced documentaries, renowned for his firsthand reporting from war zones across the Middle East, Afghanistan, and beyond.