Chip Brienza

Chip Brienza is a fill-in host on WETA Classical. He has been a familiar voice on the air in Greater Washington for over two decades: first at the former WGMS, and from 2007-2017 as a weekend host on WETA Classical.  

A native New Yorker, he came to Washington D.C. while serving as an Air Force linguist assigned to the National Security Agency. While there, he also became a traveling chef of sorts, demonstrating culinary talents in the homes of friends and colleagues, sometimes with unexpected results — he once made an exploding lasagna, but that's another story.

An actor and singer as well as a broadcaster, Brienza's film credits include Twelve Monkeys, The Sentinel, and Serial Mom. On television, Brienza has appeared on MatlockA Man Called HawkHomicide, and The Wire.

Brienza's stage credits include Ford's Theatre, where he appeared in “Kudzu: A Southern Musical” and the comedy “Beau Jest.” At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts he sang with the former Washington Opera, among other groups.

When not performing, Brienza is renovating a 170-year old house in a small town on the Old National Road. In his spare time he gardens; when there's no time to spare, he just weeds.