Zeinab Badawi is a presenter and documentary film maker for BBC News. She is best known for her work presenting on programmes such as HARDtalk and Global Questions and World News Today with Zeinab Badawi. 
 
Zeinab has also recently produced and presented both the acclaimed 20-part TV series, The History of Africa, a comprehensive delve into the continent’s long and complex history, as well as Take Me to the Opera, a portrait of the opera world drawn from the point of view of singers and commentators in the field, harnessing Zeinab’s own long-held passion for opera. In 2024, Zeinab published her acclaimed book An African History of Africa expanding on the themes covered in the original series, charting the epic story of the oldest inhabited continent in the world from the perspectives of Africans themselves.   
 
Zeinab has been in the media for three decades and through her work as a TV and radio journalist has reported extensively around the world. She has previously interviewed leading international figures including the Dalai Lama, President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir, Desmond Tutu, and Bill Clinton.   
 
After a three-year stint reporting on British politics, covering the party conferences and presenting programmes on British politics live from the BBC’s Westminster studios, Zeinab joined BBC World News – the BBC’s international news TV channel, where she has become a regular face.  
 
Zeinab is the current chair of the Royal African Society and a director of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She also serves on the advisory boards of the think tanks Afrobarometer and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS). Zeinab is a member of the steering committee of the Africa Europe Foundation and a trustee of BBC Media Action.  
 
Zeinab holds honorary doctorates from SOAS, London University and the University of the Arts London. She has received a number of media awards including the President’s Medal of the British Academy for her services to broadcasting and education, and the UN Association-UK Sir Brian Urquhart award for distinguished service to broadcasting, education and the UN.