Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is the American anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, the evening news program of the NBC television network. Williams replaced Tom Brokaw on December 2, 2004. Previously, Williams was the network's chief White House correspondent and host of The News with Brian Williams on CNBC and MSNBC. In 2007, Williams was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. He lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, with his wife, Jane Stoddard Williams, one of their two children (Doug Williams), and two dogs.

Williams was raised in a middle class Irish Catholic home. In his childhood his family moved from his birth place, Elmira, New York, to Middletown, New Jersey. He graduated from Mater Dei High School, a Roman Catholic high school in the New Monmouth section of Middletown. While in high school, he was a volunteer firefighter for three years at the Middletown Township (New Jersey) Fire Department. His first job was as a busboy at Perkins Pancake House (as stated on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday 5/22/09). After high school, he attended Brookdale Community College, before transferring to George Washington University, and then to The Catholic University of America. He did not graduate, instead taking an internship with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He now calls leaving college one of his "great regrets." In 2004, he returned to The Catholic University of America and gave the commencement address, received an honorary doctorate as he delivered the keynote address at Providence College's May 19, 2002 commencement, and in 2008 received an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree from The Ohio State University. On June 27, 2008, he delivered the annual Philip J. Murnion Lecture, hosted by the Catholic Common Ground Initiative at Catholic University.

After working in the lobbying arm of the National Association of Broadcasters, Williams began his broadcasting career at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1981. A year later he moved back to Washington, D.C. and worked at WTTG-TV as general assignment reporter.