The former editor of Newsweek International, Zakaria is a columnist, pundit-at-large, and an "intellectual heartthrob."

The son of a prominent Bombay politician, Zakaria moved to the U.S. to attend Yale before heading off to Harvard to pick up a PhD in political science. He soon landed at the small but influential magazine Foreign Affairs, where he eventually became managing editor, then left in 2000 to join Newsweek as international editor. A political conservative and foreign policy hawk, Zakaria first gained notice (from the public, at least) in the aftermath of Sept. 11th, when he started appearing regularly on Charlie Rose's talk show on PBS and published several op-eds in the New York Times.

Zakaria's a rare breed: Muslim, conservative, and a card-carrying supporter of George Bush's war in Iraq. For those reasons—and because he happens to be a gifted public speaker, too—Zakaria has become a fixture on political chat shows. Until 2007, he was a regular on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos and hosted the weekly program Foreign Exchange on PBS. In 2007, CNN president Jon Klein hired him to host a weekly international news program; Fareed Zakaria GPS debuted on June 1, 2008. Now that he left his post at Newsweek Zakaria has more time to weigh in on current affairs on a handful of other programs from The View to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He's married to Paula Throckmorton Zakaria, a Harvard MBA who owns a jewelry-design business; the couple has a son, Omar, and a daughter, Lila. [Image via Getty]