Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed
Born (1968-06-15) 15 June 1968
London, England, UK
Alma mater St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Occupation broadcaster, journalist and writer
Years active 1990-present
Children 2 [1]
Parent(s) Lalita Ahmed (mother)

Samira Ahmed (born 15 June 1968, London) is a British freelance journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she has presented Radio 4's PM, The World Tonight and Sunday. She also presented two Proms for BBC Four in 2011. On BBC Radio 3, Ahmed is one of the presenters of Night Waves.

Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent and for The Spectator magazine's Arts Blog. She was a reporter and presenter on Channel 4 News from 2000 to 2011. She presented Sunday Morning Live, a topical discussion programme on BBC One from 2012 to 2013.

Early life

Ahmed's mother Lalita (née Chatterjee, born 1939, Lucknow)[2] worked for the Hindi service of the BBC World Service in Bush House.[3] Ahmed was educated at Wimbledon High School, a girls' independent school in Wimbledon, south London, and read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, between 1986 and 1989.[4] During this period she edited Isis and the Union magazines, both Oxford University student publications,[5] and won the Philip Geddes Journalism Prize for her work on student newspapers.[6] After graduation she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism at City University, London.[7] She recalls that Lucy Mathen, the first female Asian reporter on BBC television,[8] who worked on John Craven's Newsround, was an inspirational figure for her, as was broadcaster Shyama Perera,[7] who was working in Fleet Street at around the same time.[9]

Journalism career

Ahmed became a BBC news trainee in 1990. She was a BBC journalist until December 1997, working as a news correspondent, a reporter on Newsnight and the Today programme, and a presenter on BBC World and BBC News 24. Shortly after her marriage, she became the BBC's Los Angeles correspondent and covered the O. J. Simpson trial, before working as an anchor and political correspondent in Berlin for Deutsche Welle TV.

She joined Channel 4 News in April 2000 shortly after having her first child, and became a presenter after having her second child in July 2002. In June 2011 Ahmed left Channel 4, and went freelance.[10]

In 2009 she won Broadcast of the Year at the annual Stonewall Awards for her special report on "corrective" rape of lesbian women in South Africa.[11] The report was made after ActionAid contacted her about their campaign against homophobic crime.[12] She won the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, with a specialist round on Laura Ingalls Wilder, in December 2010.[12]

Since October 2011 she has been a regular newspaper reviewer on Lorraine.[2] From June 2012 to November 2013 she presented the third and fourth series of Sunday Morning Live on BBC One.[5] In October 2012, Ahmed succeeded Ray Snoddy as presenter of Newswatch on the BBC News Channel.[13]

She is a Visiting Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and a regular contributor to The Big Issue.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Samira Ahmed Biography", IMDb.
  2. 1 2 "Lalita Ahmed". IMDb.
  3. ↑ "Samira Ahmed: My Life in Media". The Independent. 13 August 2007. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009.
  4. ↑ Samira Ahmed, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.
  5. 1 2 About Samira Ahmed.
  6. ↑ Past Lecturers Philip Geddes Memorial Fund.
  7. 1 2 Rabiah Malik, Samira Ahmed, Chick and Quill, City University alumni website, 23 February 2011.
  8. ↑ Samira Ahmed, "Newsround, racism and me", The Guardian, 29 September 2011.
  9. ↑ Shyama Perera, "How I have come to love the flag", The Independent, 4 June 2006.
  10. ↑ Mark Sweney, "Samira Ahmed to leave Channel 4", The Guardian, 6 June 2011.
  11. ↑ "2009 winners". Stonewall.
  12. 1 2 Samira Ahmed (30 December 2010). "Celebrity Mastermind: memories of the black leather chair". Channel 4.
  13. ↑ "Samira Ahmed takes over from Ray Snoddy as Newswatch presenter", Press Gazette, 3 October 2012.
  14. ↑ "Presenters", Sunday, BBC Radio 4.
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