Dylan Dreyer might be "Today’s" favorite meteorologist, but could she also be your
kid’s favorite author? There’s more to this NBC anchor than the daily weather forecast.
Dylan Dreyer was born in New Jersey in 1981. She once told New Jersey Monthly:
"I'm very proud to be from New Jersey. It's the reason I am who I am."
Dreyer grew up with her mom, dad, and two older brothers in Manalapan Township.
In 2019, Dreyer made a trek to her hometown and brought "Today" with her. During the
filmed segment, she took viewers on a tour of some of her favorite spots,
including the property that used to be her grandparents' farm and
the ice cream shop she worked at. But the true highlight? Her childhood home.
"This is the most exciting part. This is the house I grew up in. The house my dad built!"
Dylan Dreyer graduated from Manalapan High School in New Jersey in 1999. In 2017,
Dreyer took "Today" back to her alma mater for a tour down memory lane. Though she enjoyed academic
subjects like physics, her favorite part of high school was an extracurricular, saying:
"My true passion in high school: softball."
During her visit, she reunited with her former coach.
"This young lady was the toughest, the fastest,
quality person that we had here at Manalapan for a long time."
Dreyer's love of the game began early,
thanks to her older brothers. She once shared on the "Break a Bat" podcast:
"I always wanted to be doing whatever they were doing,
so I started playing [T-ball] when I was five years old."
Before she knew it, she was playing for her high school's softball team.
Dylan Dreyer's softball career began to wane by the time she got to college. As she
explained to the "Break a Bat" podcast, she didn't play because she, quote,
"wasn't good enough." She did, however, find a new passion. In a video package for NBC News,
she shared that she originally planned to study engineering at Rutgers University,
but once she was there, it didn't take her much time to find her true calling.
"My favorite freshman year class was Meteorology 101. It was
before I even knew I wanted to get into meteorology."
Thanks to that class, Dreyer switched her major to meteorology, and the rest
is history. She was a weather anchor for the Rutgers radio station and television network,
and graduated cum laude from the university in 2003. She was one
of the few women in the department at the time, but as she said in New Jersey Monthly:
"I never really thought, Oh I'm a girl in a male field."
Even if you are a day one "Sex and the City" fan who has seen every episode at least a dozen times,
we'd be willing to bet you did not know Dylan Dreyer was a part of the hit series. While
taking "Today" on a tour of her hometown, Dreyer revealed that Jake's Cree Mee Freeze
was not only where she worked her first job, but it also set the stage for her
first-ever television appearance: in "Sex and the City's" Season 5 episode "I Love a Charade."
In the episode, Dreyer can be spotted wiping her nose in the background at
the ice cream shop as Carrie invites Jack to a party in the Hamptons. The
meteorologist noted on "Today" that she didn't have to audition for her stint on the series.
"'Sex and the City' wanted to shoot a scene at a 'Long Island-y looking' ice cream shop,
and this was in New Jersey, and I was in the background serving ice cream."
Dreyer also assured them that was not sick on the job; the nose wipe was a
result of being nervous about sharing a scene with Sarah Jessica Parker.
Dylan Dreyer joined the NBC family in 2003 when she became the meteorologist for WICU-TV in Erie,
Pennsylvania. After that, she went to WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston's WHDH-TV. In
2012, she joined "Weekend Today" as a weather reporter, and then became a regular on "NBC
Nightly News with Lester Holt" and "Today." In 2022, Dreyer announced she'd be leaving
"Weekend Today" after almost a decade, but would still be on the weekday show "3rd Hour Today."
Throughout her years working with NBC News, she has served as a live
reporter during some of the worst weather calamities, such as Hurricane Harvey. She
also started hosting "Journey with Dylan Dreyer" in 2016, and the series ran for
two seasons. She has been hosting "Earth Odyssey With Dylan Dreyer" since 2019.
While her career has been full of impressive achievements and successes,
that's not to say Dreyer hasn't met some road blocks along the way. Alongside an
Instagram photo of a rejection letter she received in 2003, she wrote:
"Stumbled upon this today...a perfect reminder to never give up!!"
Dylan Dreyer and Brian Fichera were coworkers first. As Dreyer shared on their wedding website:
"We met at WHDH, where Brian is an in-studio technician, or 'The Camerman' as we call him."
After working together at the Boston station for a few years,
sparks flew, and the couple got engaged in July 2011.
The proposal took place on the front porch of Fichera's parents' house in Easton,
and apparently, everyone but Dreyer knew that Fichera was about to pop the question — Dreyer's
friends and family were already there in the backyard, waiting for her to say yes. It didn't
take much time for Dreyer to realize what was about to happen. She told The Boston Globe:
"When I saw there were roses and two glasses of champagne, I knew."
The power couple tied the knot in October 2012 and has been going strong ever since.
In June 2016, the "Today" host revealed that she was expecting her first child, a baby boy,
during a round of Friday Fishbowl on the show. In a blog published by Today, Dylan Dreyer wrote:
"We weren't in a rush to have kids and, to be honest, there was a time when we
declared we never wanted kids! Then one day we both looked at each other and said
'I want a baby!' As usual, we were on the same page and it all just seemed right."
Throughout her pregnancy, Dreyer recorded video diaries for "Today"
where she regularly got candid and emotional about pregnancy, parenthood, and her future.
"I had this moment the other day. This moment of — oh my gosh, in two months we're going to have
a baby. And I'm kind of scared to death about how my life is going to change!"
Of course, her life was going to change,
but as she would remind herself, that change would be for the better.
"I get into that excited phase again where I just can't wait to meet this little guy,
who is going to change our life."
Dreyer and Brian Fichera welcomed their first son,
whom they named Calvin Bradley Fichera, in December 2016.
In April 2019, Dylan Dreyer and Brian Fichera went on "Today" to talk about
the miscarriage Dreyer endured while she was already struggling with secondary infertility,
a condition that prevents someone from successfully having a baby
after they've given birth before. In the segment, she noted that she
wanted other people suffering from secondary infertility to know that they are not alone.
In a 2021 Instagram post, Dreyer opened up about her struggles with pumping milk
as well as her inability to put an end to breastfeeding. In the caption, she wrote:
"Pumping gave me such dysphoria...a feeling that wasn't really a depression,
just a momentary fleeting feeling of hatred toward
everyone and everything in the moment and a feeling of nausea that was sickening."
In spite of the bad experience, she found it difficult to stop breastfeeding altogether.
Secondary infertility and breastfeeding struggles aren't frequently discussed,
but Dreyer is using her platform to shine a light on both.
In July 2019, Dylan Dreyer announced she was expecting her second child. Later that day,
during the "3rd hour of Today," the meteorologist's then-two-year-old son
Calvin helped reveal the gender of the baby in the sweetest way possible. Surprising the
audience as a special guest, Calvin Fichera entered the set in a blue kid's SUV with
blue balloons attached to it. Brian Fichera came along with Calvin sporting a blue tuxedo as well.
"I'm a boy mom."
The couple's second son, Oliver George Fichera,
made his grand entry into the world in January 2020. Their third son, Russell James Fichera,
joined the family of four in September 2021, six weeks earlier than expected.
While she clearly loves being a mom to three,
that's not to say it's always a breeze. In April 2022, she posted a photo of her
sons and husband that she snapped before heading out to work one morning, sharing:
"Sleep is on short supply. I'm so tired I'm dizzy. But no matter how tired and
irritable I am, I couldn't help but feel a little
heartbreak leaving this morning. I miss them all the second I leave the house."
Dylan Dreyer knows a thing or two about weather and meteorology,
and she made sure to incorporate all of that into her children's book series. In October 2021,
"Misty the Cloud: A Very Stormy Day" hit shelves, just weeks after the birth of
her third son. While announcing the release of her book on a March 2021 episode of the
morning news show, Dreyer broke down the premise for her "Today" co-hosts.
"So Misty, she's a cloud, you know,
and she and her friends are going through all of the things our kids are going through,
but when Misty has a really bad day, her day turns into a giant thunderstorm."
Dreyer also shared that her husband was involved in the series' development,
saying it was something they'd been working on together for ten years.
The sequel, which is titled "Misty the Cloud: Friends Through Rain or Shine,"
was released on September 13, 2022. The book explores universal subjects like sharing,
friendship, and compromises. Dreyer told E! News:
"We all need to figure out our emotions and what to do with them
sometimes and this one especially, it's all just about getting along."