Taking Charge in Philly
/Fox Philly morning Anchor Alex Holley has become a star in Philadelphia in a very short time.
3 years ago, Holley was working as a Reporter and fill-in Anchor at the NBC affiliate in the tiny Myrtle Beach, S.C. market.
Now she's Philly's "It" girl and she's loving her new gig sitting next to Mike Jerrick on Good Day.
“There was a chemistry right from the jump,” Jerrick said. “What’s not to like? Alex is smart, funny, clever, hardworking. She’s a good writer and a go-getter. She was just what we needed.”
Philly.com writes that it took Philadelphians a bit longer to warm up to her all the way. Their biggest complaint: Holley was too young.
“The one thing I heard about Philadelphia before I came was that Philadelphians don’t like change,” said Holley, who is now in her late 20s. She’s wary of giving her exact age because, she said, people focus on the number more than her ability to do the work.
“I set out to know this city and make sure the city knew me. So I decided to go to everything — sometimes I’d go to two events a day. It’s hard to dislike someone when you actually know them,” she said.
Holley made a name for herself by putting herself out there to the point where it’s now literally part of her job — a year ago, she launched her weekly segment “Alex Around Town,” reporting from cool places in town she’s never been.
And when she needed to, she proved she could hold Good Day together on her own, especially last winter, when Jerrick took a six-week leave to fight depression.
“When he’s not there, I take the lead,” said Holley, who has developed a few on-air Holleyisms, including a deep-throated “ha ha” and the way she always calls people “dear.” She admitted not really feeling like the show was hers until she starred as Bruno Mars in the morning crew’s version of “Uptown Funk” in 2015. “It was terrifying because I came from South Carolina, where I was serious, straitlaced, and I wasn’t allowed to have an opinion.”
The only child of municipal judge Glenn and American Airlines consultant Sharyn, Holley grew up in Irving, a suburb of Dallas, wanting to be an actress with a side gig as a waitress.
“We wanted her to be an astronaut or pilot or something with that field,” said Glenn. “But she was always very outgoing. She was never shy. We just didn’t know what to make of it. She would talk to everybody. What they see is who she is.”
When she was a sophomore, she started doing the daily announcements for the MacArthur High School football team. Part of her job, she said, was to come up with creative skits to get the student body hyped about football. She developed an interest in broadcasting.
“I thought to myself, ‘I can do this for a living,’ ” Holley said.
And she's making a living in Philly and watching her, you're thinking there is even a bigger job on the horizon.