Cenk Kadir Uygur (born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American progressive political commentator, media host, attorney, journalist, and politician. Uygur is the creator of The Young Turks, an American left-wing, sociopolitical, progressive news and commentary program. Before beginning his career as a political commentator, he worked briefly as an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York City. As a young man, Uygur supported social conservative positions but as his views evolved he began to identify as a progressive. Uygur also co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats along with Zack Exley, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Kyle Kulinski.