Chris Willis

What's your name?
Chris Willis

What's your position?
Anchor, Austin News Today and Austin News At Noon

When did you start at KXAN Austin News?
Dec. 20, 1999

What was your most memorable story?
Hurricane Katrina, especially driving over the causeway when the hurricane was hitting the area.

How did you get started in TV?
Interned at KHON in Honolulu, Hawaii; then worked at the ABC affiliate in Tri-Cities Washington as weekend Sports Anchor; then to the NBC affiliate in Helena, Montana, as News Director, evening anchor; then to CBS affiliate in Yuma, Arizona, as News Director, evening anchor; then to CBS affiliate in Chattanooga, Tennessee as evening anchor; then to KXAN Austin News, hired as morning anchor, moved to reporter in 2005 and then back to morning anchor in May of 2007.

Where did you go to college?
Washington State University

What's your hometown?
Shelton, Washington, home of the Highclimbers.

What's your favorite thing about Austin?
Lake Austin

What's your guilty pleasure?
Waterskiing on the lake with family.

Tell us about your family.
Wife, Katherine Kisiel Willis, morning anchor at FOX 7, beautiful, rascally little boy, Austin James, born September 30, 2005 and another son, Nicholas Christopher, born December 12, 2007.  Mom, Dad, sister and two nieces in the Seattle area. Younger brother, Curtis, lives in Maui (although we're trying to get him to move to Texas, no luck yet!) We've also got "Pearl," our white Labrador retriever, who has no interest in retrieving anything.

You can e-mail Chris at Chris.Willis@kxan.com .