Christopher Loffredo Hayes (/heɪz/; born February 28, 1979) is an American political commentator, television news anchor, and author. Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes, a weekday news and opinion television show on MSNBC. Hayes also hosts a weekly MSNBC podcast, Why Is This Happening? Hayes formerly hosted a weekend MSNBC show, Up with Chris Hayes. He is an editor-at-large of The Nation magazine.

Hayes was born in the Bronx, New York City, one of three sons of Roger and Geri Hayes. His mother is of Italian descent and his father is of Irish Catholic ancestry. His father moved to New York from Chicago while studying at a Jesuit seminary, and began community organizing in the Bronx. Roger Hayes spent several years leading community organizing at the Community Service Society of New York and works as an assistant commissioner for the NYC Department of Health. Hayes's mother was a school teacher and works for the NYC Department of Education. Hayes was raised Catholic, but stopped attending services in college and does not consider himself to be religious. He is a childhood friend and schoolmate of comedian Desus Nice.

Hayes attended Hunter College High School in New York City; his classmates included Immortal Technique and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Hayes directed the latter in Miranda's first musical. He attended Brown University majoring in philosophy, graduating with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2001. Speaking of "intellectual formation" at Brown with Ezra Klein, Hayes stated, "I was a philosophy major, but I was very much in this sort of analytic school. But the intellectual culture of the place I was with and the people I was with was very influenced by postmodern critique, by Foucault... particularly." At Brown, Hayes met his future wife, Kate A. Shaw.

Beginning in August 2001, for four years Hayes was a contributor to the independent weekly newspaper Chicago Reader, where he covered local and national politics. In late 2003, he began a four-year stint at In These Times, a labor-focused monthly magazine based in Chicago where he was a senior editor.

From 2005 to 2006, Hayes was a Schumann Center Writing Fellow at In These Times. From 2006 through 2007, Hayes was a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for The Nation. On November 1, 2007, The Nation named him its Washington, D.C. editor, succeeding David Corn.

Hayes wrote extensively on issues central to the liberal community, including what ails the Democratic Party in the post-9/11 era and how the labor movement is changing. He also reported on progressive activists' work to resuscitate the "public option" during the 2009–2010 health care fight when many political insiders wrote it off as dead.

Hayes was an adjunct professor of English at St. Augustine College in Chicago and a Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at New America Foundation from 2008 to 2010.

Hayes guest-hosted The Rachel Maddow Show in July 2010 while Maddow was traveling in Afghanistan and later often filled in for Maddow when she was absent due to his twin-like resemblance to Maddow. Hayes has also hosted other MSNBC shows such as The Ed Show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.