She was also the host and executive producer of Investigation Discovery's true crime series Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostin.

Hostin was born on October 20, 1968, in New York City to a Puerto Rican mother, Rosa Beza, and an American father, William Cummings.

[5][6] Hostin was raised in The Bronx, New York City, attended the all-girls Dominican Academy, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.

[3][7] She received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Rhetoric[8] from Binghamton University and a Juris Doctor from Notre Dame Law School.

[9] Hostin began her career as a law clerk to retired Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals Robert M. Bell and later became a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

[28] In a discussion on The View, Hostin said that Latino voters who did not support Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election did so out of sexism and misogyny.

[32][33] In another discussion on The View, Hostin claimed that Patrick Mahomes' wife, Brittany, should have known that it was "problematic" to support "a racist" for president, given that she is in an interracial marriage.

[41] In January 2025, he was among 199 defendants accused of insurance fraud in a civil lawsuit filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in New York.