Mariusz Max Kolonko, one of the most popular Polish journalists was born on the 6th of May 1965 in Bydgoszcz. He attended an English-oriented class at Kamil Cyprian Norwid Secondary School nr 1 in Bydgoszcz. In his school times, he lived at Siernieczko, a district of Bydgoszcz.
A promising journalist

Still being a student of Journalism Faculty at Warsaw University, he was a host of  popular radio programmes: ‘Welcome to Channel 3’ and ‘Summer with the Radio’ and he was rewarded twice with The Young’s Prize, an award for the most talented journalist of the younger generation.

Meteoric Career in TV

After graduating from Journalist Studies at Warsaw University and Political Science at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Max Kolonko left to the USA in 1988 where he managed construction business. Then he started a TV enterprise ‘Media 2000 Communications’ in New York and produced programmes for main American networks.

Staying in the USA, he also worked for Polish state owned networks as a national senior foreign correspondent. Between 1992 and 2000, he was a correspondent for ‘Panorama’, a news programme of Channel 2   and then, between 2001 and 2005 he worked as a correspondent for ‘The News’, the main news programme of Channel 1. Being an American foreign affairs expert, he was frequently a special guest invited to many TV programmes broadcasted by the main American networks including CBS, ABC, and CNN. For the same reason he was also a special guest at Goethe Institute in Washington DC.


Being an author of many feature programmes and political documentaries, he presented such interesting places as the Centre of American Territorial Defence, the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower or the military base in Guantanamo in Cuba. He was the only Polish journalist and one among few in the world, who had permission from Pentagon, to transmit a programme from the heart of the National Missile Defence Centre in Fort Greely in Alaska. He was also the only reporter who touched the nuclear button.

A columnist, feature writer, author of a book

In 2007, he published his articles in Monday edition of ‘Super Express’ in a column entitled ‘America according to Mariusz Max Kolonko’. He ran his feature articles in ’Newsweek’, ‘History Focus’, and ‘Agora’ as well as in a nationwide journal ‘Rzeczpospolita’. He also placed his articles on the pages of ‘The Huffington Post’ that is a web portal of influential circles of politicians and Hollywood celebrities.

In 2001 and 2007, he was a producer and director of  a documentary programme entitled ‘Discovering America’ broadcasted by channel TV4. A printed edition of a collection of his feature articles entitled ’Discovering America. Notes taken in a jeep.’ appeared in 2006.

Awards, awards and once again awards

Mariusz Max Kolonko received  numerous awards and titles including ‘Victor 2001’, an award for the best journalist of  the year, Silver 29th Telly Award for his documentary entitled ‘The Shield’ about National Missile Defence in the USA . It is notable that the award is given only in two categories: silver and bronze. Moreover, he won prestigious awards, which honour significant achievements in advertising industry, at the 9th edition of Effie Awards: silver and bronze ones in category Launch and Media House for Liberty Direct advertising campaign in 2008. He is also a winner of a bronze award of the 10th edition of Effie Awards for an advertising campaign in Financial Services category that was organized in 2008.

More on an official Web page: www.maxkolonko.com