Long-time morning anchor for National Public Radio (NPR) News; retired from that position at the end of 2009.
He was the announcer and score-keeper for the National Public Radio show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" until 2014. The prize for callers who won news quiz segments during the run of the show was for Kasell to perform a greating of their choice on their answering machine or voicemail. Throughout his final show, broadcast on May 17 of that year, he received pre-recorded "voicemail messages" of congratulations and thanks from Tom Hanks, Stephen Colbert, Katie Couric and sitting president Barack Obama.
In high school in Goldsboro, North Carolina, USA, he studied drama under Andy Griffith, who taught there before entering show business.