In November of 2017, Ilia became the first Afro-Latina to anchor a newscast for a US based broadcast network, when she was chosen as the co-anchor of “Noticiero Univision” alongside legendary anchor, Jorge Ramos. In addition to her newscast duties, she is also the host of the weekly prime-time news magazine “Aqui y Ahora.”

​

Ilia has covered some of the most important news events including the earthquake in Mexico, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the US Presidential Elections . In August of 2017, she gained national recognition for her confrontational interview with Chris Barker, a North Carolina KKK leader who threatened Ilia on camera while she calmly continued to interview him.

​

In the summer of 2020, she became an author when she published her best-selling memoir, “My Time to Speak”, in Spanish and English through Atria/Simon & Schuster.  The book was ranked as one of the best non-fiction memoirs of the year by various publications and was featured in the New York Times Book Review, Kirkus, and NBC News.

​

Calderon was born to a bi-racial family in the Chocó region of Colombia.  She launched her journalism career in 1994 as the anchor of a local newscast in the country’s second largest city, Medellín. In 1997, she moved to Bogotá where she hosted the national newscast “Noticiero CMI” until 2001. After relocating to Miami, she worked as a news anchor for Telemundo, co-anchored the weekend newscast for the Telemundo broadcast network and later, co-hosted the network’s weekday morning program “Cada Día con María Antonieta Collins.”

​

She joined Univision in 2007 as co-anchor of the weekend edition of its daily news magazine “Primer Impacto,” and in 2009, she was promoted to co-host of the show’s principal edition, airing Monday through Friday. Calderon became co-anchor of Noticiero Univision: Edición Nocturna in 2011.