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Anne Burrell’s Death Is Under Investigation as a Possible Drug Overdose

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The city’s medical examiner has not determined a cause, but an internal police document says the TV chef was found surrounded by pills.

June 20, 2025Updated 6:24 p.m. ET

The New York City Police Department is investigating the death of Anne Burrell, the popular Food Network star who was found dead in her Brooklyn home on Tuesday morning, as a possible drug overdose, according to an internal document viewed by The New York Times.

The document said Ms. Burrell, who was 55, had been “discovered in the shower unconscious and unresponsive surrounded by approximately (100) assorted pills.” Emergency medical workers who responded to a 911 call pronounced her dead at the scene.

A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office said Friday that an autopsy had been completed, but that any findings on the cause and manner of Ms. Burrell’s death were still pending.

Ms. Burrell was an accomplished Italian chef who began her television career as a sous-chef to the celebrity chef Mario Batali on the Food Network show “Iron Chef America.” She was best known for hosting “Worst Cooks in America,” which has run for 28 seasons.

With her plume of platinum-blond hair, signature mismatched socks and a way of teaching that included a big helping of unvarnished truth, she became a mainstay for the network, appearing as a guest or judge on several other shows and even once riding on the network’s float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.