Iris Lopez, weather anchor/ reporter

Born and raised here in El Paso, I am a proud Montwood High School Alumni! "Go Rams, Go!"

Growing up my dad would always lend my older sisters and I his video camera so that we could make our own fake newscast together for fun. My older sisters were always the lead anchors, and me being the youngest, I was stuck doing the weather. Little did I know our pretend newscasts would prepare me for my future career.

I grew up with a love and passion for music.  My dad always sang Luis Miguel love songs to my mom, and when I was in middle school I picked up his talents.  I was in choir throughout all of my school years.  Once I graduated from high school I attended El Paso Community College.  There I took music courses in hopes of pursuing a career as a professional singer.  I participated in local musicals with the El Paso Playhouse. 

Shortly after my musical theatre debut in "The Fantastiks," I became ill.  I was in and out of hospitals for about a month.  While in the hospital the only way I could keep myself entertained was by watching the local news. I watched Estela, Gary, and Dave everyday and thought, "Hey, I can do that."

Fast forward to my college years.  I graduated from UTEP (Go Miners!) in 2013 with a major in Multi-media journalism and a minor is Spanish. I participated in two internships while in college.  My first internship was with K-FOX news. I then made my way into an internship with a local radio station, 104.3 HitFM.  Once I completed that internship I was immediately offered a position as an on-air radio personality. 

For 3 years I was known as Lily Lopez on the radio.  I worked graveyard and then made my way up to midday shifts with HitFM.  Although working in the radio industry was a great and fun experience, I wanted to make my way back into TV broadcasting. 

I was gladly offered a graduate internship with ABC-7/KVIA and 2 weeks into the internship I was offered a part-time position as a weekend reporter.  For 6 months I was working with the radio station during the week, and KVIA during the weekends.  After 7 months with KVIA I was finally offered a full-time position as a weekend weather anchor and weekday news reporter.

I am truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to make 2 of my childhood dreams come true.  Working for a radio station I grew up listening to, and now working with the #1 news station in the city!  I am even more blessed that I have the chance to do all of this with a little human being I proudly call my son.  To show my son that anything is possible no matter what obstacles are thrown your way is the best accomplishment I have ever achieved. 

When I'm not talking about the weather or reporting news stories, you can find me making YouTube videos with my son, singing with a cup, auditioning for "The Voice" whenever I get the chance to, or obsessing over Bruno Mars and Michael Jackson!