The co-host of NBC's Today Show, Lauer is the man who both men and women love to wake up to.

Raised in Greenwich, Lauer dropped out of college and started his career in television in 1979 as a producer at a West Virginia station. He soon moved in front of the camera and arrived in New York in 1989 to host the show 9 Broadcast Plaza. In 1992, he caught a break when WNBC hired him for the five o'clock news. While working for the local affiliate he got his first chance to fill in on Today, and by 1994 he was a full-time news anchor. Following the departure of Bryant Gumbel in 1997, Lauer was named co-host. For nearly a decade, he sat alongside Katie Couric until she stepped down in 2006 and was replaced by Meredith Vieira and then Ann Curry in 2011.

Easygoing Lauer rarely generates much drama during his shmooze-fests with celebs and politicians, which is of course the point. Occasionally, though, just to remind the audience that he's a journalist, he asks a tough question or two and generates some buzz. In 1999, he so upset Monica Lewinsky during a particularly rough interview that she refused to speak to him afterwards. Most famously, in 2005, he argued with Tom Cruise over psychiatry and the use of Ritalin-the actor called Lauer "glib" and said, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

Lauer married Annette Roque, a former model originally from Holland, in 1998. It's his second marriage: His ex-wife is Nancy Alspaugh, a TV producer and the author of the book Fearless Aging; they divorced in 1989 after seven years. Lauer and Roque have three children. [Image via Getty]