Rudy Maxa Biography
Maxa is an American consumer travel expert and the host and executive producer of 85 half-hour travel shows on the world’s great destinations that are broadcast on public television in the U.S. with the titles Smart Travels: Europe with Rudy Maxa, Smart Travels: Pacific Rim with Rudy Maxa and—since 2008—Rudy Maxa’s World.
Rudy Maxa’s most recent 20 episodes of Rudy Maxa’s World are also broadcast overseas on Travel Channel International and have received numerous awards, including two regional Emmy awards. Additionally, Maxa hosts America’s most widely syndicated radio travel show, a two-hour weekend show also called Rudy Maxa’s World.
Rudy Maxa Age
Maxa was born in 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio. He is 67-70 years as of 2019.
Rudy Maxa Wife
Maxa is married to Ana Scofield.
Rudy Maxa Net Worth
Maxa net worth is estimated between $1 million -10 million.
Rudy Maxa Career
Maxa started his career in journalism after graduating from Ohio University (BSJ, ’71) as an investigative reporter, magazine writer and personalities columnist at The Washington Post from 1971 to 1983. Maxa’s reporting on a Capitol Hill sex scandal and the resulting changes in congressional rules was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and he received the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism for a series of stories on an international Ponzi scheme.
Maxa left the Post to become a senior editor at the city magazine Washingtonian from 1983 to 1992 and also worked as the Washington bureau chief of Spy magazine from 1992 to 1994. Maxa is an award-winning contributing editor with National Geographic Traveler magazine and Delta Air Lines’ magazine, Sky.
He is the author of two nonfiction books, Dare To Be Great released in 1976 and Public Trust, Private Lust released in 1977. He has written articles for GQ, USA Today, Forbes, Playboy, Modern Maturity, Town & Country Travel, Travel & Leisure and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. Maxa wrote for the ABC-TV dramatic series Capital News and for several years hosted a Saturday-morning radio talk show on political issues for WRC-AM, the NBC-owned and -operated radio station in Washington, D.C.
His career as a travel journalist started in 1990 when he started contributing bi-weekly travel commentary to the public radio business show Marketplace. Maxa started writing weekly travel columns for msnbc.com, usatoday.com and abc.com and his Marketplace commentary led to the creation of a two-hour public radio show, The Savvy Traveler, that Maxa hosted for four years before launching his public television shows. He attributes his desire to travel partly to the fact he grew up as a military brat. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Maxa has a son and a daughter.