1. Samira Ahmed was born on 15 June 1968 and is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she presents Front Row on Radio 4 and Newswatch on the BBC News channel and BBC One during BBC Breakfast, and regularly presents radio documentaries.
Samira Ahmed was named British Broadcasting Press Guild audio presenter of the year in March 2020.
Samira Ahmed has presented Radio 3's Night Waves and Radio 4's PM, The World Tonight, Today, Sunday and has presented the Proms for BBC Four.
Samira Ahmed was a reporter and presenter on Channel 4 News from 2000 to 2011.
Samira Ahmed presented Sunday Morning Live, a topical discussion programme on BBC One from 2012 to 2013.
Samira Ahmed was born in Wandsworth, south London, to Athar and Lalita Samira Ahmed.
Samira Ahmed's mother is a TV presenter, actress, chef and writer on Indian cookery who previously worked for the Hindi service of the BBC World Service in Bush House as well as All India Radio in India.
Samira Ahmed attended Wimbledon High School, an independent day school for girls, and edited the school magazine.
Samira Ahmed read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, which made her an honorary fellow in 2019.
Samira Ahmed recalls that Lucy Mathen, the first female Asian reporter on BBC television, who worked on John Craven's Newsround, was an inspirational figure for her, as was broadcaster Shyama Perera, who was working in Fleet Street at around the same time.
Samira Ahmed briefly worked for in Berlin as an anchor and political correspondent, but then returned for a brief spell with BBC World and as a night shift presenter for BBC News 24 before taking maternity leave.
Samira Ahmed joined Channel 4 News in April 2000, and became a presenter in July 2002.
Samira Ahmed won the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, with a specialist round on Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie books, in December 2010.
Again, in 2019, Samira Ahmed won the Celebrity Mastermind Champion of Champions; she wore a Space 1999 costume.
In October 2012, Samira Ahmed succeeded Ray Snoddy as presenter of Newswatch on the BBC News Channel.
Samira Ahmed has been a Visiting Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and a regular contributor to The Big Issue.
Samira Ahmed reprised the role for a second episode in 2021.
In November 2021, Samira Ahmed interviewed Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon about their book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present at the Royal Festival Hall.
On 3 April 2023, Samira Ahmed revealed her discovery of the earliest complete concert recording of the Beatles performing live in the UK on a special edition of Front Row on Radio 4.
Samira Ahmed has championed the cultural re-assessment of morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse in 2022 after studying 30 years of her campaign diaries, and the comedy series The Goodies in 2024.
Samira Ahmed has been awarded honorary doctorates by City, University of London, the University of East Anglia, Kingston University, and the University of Winchester.
Samira Ahmed is a trustee of the Centre for Women's Justice, a member of the blue plaques panel for Historic England, and sits on the advisory board for the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.
Samira Ahmed filed legal proceedings against the BBC under the Equality Act 2010 in October 2019.