Riz Khan
TV News Reporter & Presenter, UK
Riz Khan has had extensive careers with the BBC and CNN prior to joining the Al Jazeera English Television network. His Al Jazeera English shows – the Riz Khan daily live show and Riz Khan’s One on One weekly profile show, are aired across the globe.
He was a presenter and reporter at the BBC for eight years and was the first mainstream South Asian newsreader for their international network, hosting the news bulletin that launched BBC World Service Television News in November 1991.
He was later recruited by CNN for its own international channel where he became a senior anchor for the network’s global news shows and special events. In 1996, he launched his interactive interview show on CNN, Q&A with Riz Khan. His 1,500-plus interviews at CNN included more world leaders than any other global interactive news show at the time, including the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, to name a few.
Born in 1962 in South Yemen, Riz and his family moved to London when he was four. He attended the University of Wales where he gained an honors degree in Medical Physiology, before taking a post-graduate course in radio journalism in Portsmouth, and then joining the prestigious BBC News Trainee scheme in 1987. In 2005, he authored his first book: Al-Waleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince, published by Harper Collins.
