1. Mehdi Raza Hasan is a British-American progressive broadcaster and writer, and founder of the media company Zeteo.
40 Facts About Mehdi Hasan
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Mehdi Hasan presented The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock from October 2020 and on MSNBC from February 2021 until the show's cancellation in November 2023.
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In February 2024, Hasan joined The Guardian as a columnist.
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Mehdi Hasan is the author of Win Every Argument, and the co-author of a biography of former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.
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Mehdi Hasan was formerly the political editor of the UK edition of The Huffington Post and the presenter of the Al Jazeera English shows: The Cafe, Head to Head and UpFront.
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Mehdi Hasan returned as host of Head to Head in June 2024.
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Mehdi Hasan was born in Swindon to Indian Shia Muslim parents from the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.
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Mehdi Hasan was privately educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, a day independent school for boys at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers District of Hertfordshire, near the town of Northwood in North West London.
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Mehdi Hasan then attended Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and graduated in 2000.
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Mehdi Hasan worked as a researcher and then producer on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, with a brief period in between on BBC One's The Politics Show.
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Mehdi Hasan was appointed senior editor for politics at the New Statesman in late spring of 2009, where he stayed until May 2012, then becoming political director of The Huffington Post website.
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Mehdi Hasan became a presenter on Al Jazeera's English news channel in May 2012.
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Mehdi Hasan has appeared on the BBC's Question Time programme, and the Sunday morning programmes The Big Questions and Sunday Morning Live.
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In October 2013 on Question Time, Mehdi Hasan called the Daily Mail "immigrant-bashing, woman-hating, Muslim-smearing, NHS-undermining, [and] gay-baiting".
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Mehdi Hasan said the "sycophantic" letter was his writing but criticised the newspaper's decision to publish it.
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In 2013, Mehdi Hasan took part in a debate at the Oxford Union to consider whether Islam is a peaceful religion.
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Mehdi Hasan, who is an Ithna'Asheri Shia Muslim, vouched for Islam as a religion of peace, citing political and cultural reasons for violence in Muslim majority countries, as opposed to holding the religion of Islam responsible.
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In March 2015, Mehdi Hasan appeared in a Guardian opinion video on UK immigration.
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Since 2015, working full-time for the network in Washington, DC, Mehdi Hasan has hosted a weekly interview and discussion programme.
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Mehdi Hasan began a podcast in 2018 entitled Deconstructed, produced by the investigative journalism website The Intercept.
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On 2 October 2020, Hasan announced that he would no longer host the show as part of his move to host The Mehdi Hasan Show on NBC's new streaming service, Peacock.
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Notable guests on The Mehdi Hasan Show have included Mark Ruffalo, Jon Stewart, John Bolton, Keith Ellison, Ro Khanna, John Legend, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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In March 2021, Mehdi Hasan launched the same show on MSNBC every Sunday evening.
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Mehdi Hasan was the fill-in host on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.
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Mehdi Hasan announced at the end of his final show on 7 January 2024 that he had decided to leave the network.
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Mehdi Hasan stated: Zeteo "is an ancient Greek word that means to seek out, to inquire, to get to the truth".
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Mehdi Hasan announced that the platform will "bring you hard-hitting interviews and unsparing analysis that you won't find elsewhere".
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In late October 2024, Mehdi Hasan appeared as a guest panelist on the CNN show NewsNight with Abby Phillip to discuss the controversies surrounding statements made at the 2024 Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.
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In February 2024, Mehdi Hasan wrote in The Guardian that US president Joe Biden should end the Gaza genocide.
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Mehdi Hasan was formerly against abortion, a position he has since rejected.
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However, the article gained much attention on Twitter and Mehdi Hasan debated the issue with Suzanne Moore on BBC Radio 4's Today.
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Mehdi Hasan has been critical of the human rights situation in Pakistan, expressing disapproval of the country's blasphemy law, as well as enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
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Mehdi Hasan has criticised the human rights situation in both Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and has called out alleged backing from Pakistan for terror groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba to carry out attacks in the Indian-administered region.
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Mehdi Hasan has made several statements in opposition to the Saudi government, including challenging a statement made by Donald Trump, in which he claimed that he himself had no financial interests in Saudi Arabia, an allegation which Trump called "fake news".
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Mehdi Hasan challenged Trump's statements in a video essay published by The Intercept in October 2018.
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The comments were made in response to the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly ordered by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman, as well as several human rights violations which Mehdi Hasan cited as being carried out by Saudi Arabia.
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Mehdi Hasan had previously interviewed Khashoggi about freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia.
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Mehdi Hasan became a naturalized citizen of the United States on October 9,2020.
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In January 2014, Mehdi Hasan was awarded the Services to Media award at the British Muslim Awards.
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In 2019, Mehdi Hasan won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Online Column Writing.