Nancy Grace Opened Up About Her True Crime Career — And Why She’s So Angry On TV

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Nancy Grace, the firebrand former prosecutor turned media pundit, is a paradox in the true crime world.

She has been criticized for her “rabid persona” that terms defendants as monsters before a court has weighed in on their guilt, and the “Controversies” section of her Wikipedia page requires multiple scrolls to get through. Yet after decades in the public eye, she remains beloved by many true crime fans, who hail her as a fierce, outspoken advocate for victims’ rights and justice. She has been a fixture at CrimeCon since its inception in 2017, drawing rapturous applause from thousands of attendees in her primetime panels with long snaking lines for her “meet-and-greets” and book signings.

She’s loud, abrasive and single-minded in pursuit of justice that, in public, leaves little room for gray areas and nuance. Her aggressive on-air demeanor, parodied along with her Southern drawl multiple times over the years on “Saturday Night Live,” is a reaction to the subject matter she covers, the now-64-year-old told HuffPost earlier this year.

“When I am fighting crime, that’s all I can think about,” she said, surprisingly soft-spoken, even charming, in person. “And who wouldn’t be angry and furious and confrontational?”

Almost since she began her broadcasting career in the 1990s, she has attached herself to highly publicized, sensational cases, like O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony, Jodi Arias and Scott Peterson. The town crier of true crime pictured a much different life for herself as a young college student from rural Georgia.

When she was 19, she was studying to become an English professor and