Ben Hunte (born 22 October 1992) is a British journalist,

news presenter A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

. He previously worked for ''

Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...

'' as a global correspondent and for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as the broadcaster's first LGBT correspondent and a West Africa correspondent. In May 2022, Hunte was listed on the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

list.

Early life and education

Hunte was born in London to Caribbean parents. He studied at the

University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus The University of Nottingham Malaysia is a private university branch campus of the University of Nottingham. The university is situated in Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. The university is rated ‘Competitive’ in the SETARA 2025 rating system ...

on an all-expenses-paid scholarship, graduating in 2014 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Neuroscience. During his time there, he became president of the Students' Association and was co-founding editor of the student magazine ''Ignite''. He later graduated with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in Broadcast Journalism from

City, University of London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" an ...

, which he also attended on a full scholarship. Hunte has since received an Alumni Laureate Award from the University of Nottingham, and an XCity Award from City University.

Career

While working in strategy at

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, Hunte started a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel and social media presence. After hitting 50,000 subscribers he left Google to become a full-time influencer and trained to be a journalist. Starting at BBC News as an intern, Hunte went on to be a

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

for BBC News Africa and hosted ''What's New?'', the BBC's first programme and digital service for children. In 2019, Hunte became the

's first official

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

correspondent, reporting for all BBC and

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

platforms. In 2020, Hunte took the top spot in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and ''

Diva Diva (, ) is the Latin word for a goddess. Diva is a name from Roman mythology, and is associated with the nouns divus, diva, which means god, goddess, and the adjective divinius, which means divine or heavenly. It has often been used to refer t ...

'' magazine's Pride Power List. Hunte was also awarded Journalist of the Year by One Young World, and was a finalist for Specialist Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards, as well as Young Talent of the Year at the

Royal Television Society Awards The Royal Television Society Programme Awards, (often referred to as the RTS Awards) seek to recognise programmes or individuals who have made a positive and material contribution to their genre: either because their content or originality in for ...

. He then took on the role of the network's West Africa correspondent in March 2021, reporting from across the continent, in places such as

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

, Senegal. After working with the BBC for five years, Hunte announced his departure in September 2021 to join

as a Senior Reporter. In May 2022, Ben Hunte was listed on

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

Europe list for media and marketing. In January 2023, Hunte was promoted to Global Correspondent for VICE News, specialising in LGBTQ lives and human rights. In June 2023, he received the Foreign Press Award at the Out d'Or ceremony organized by the French Association of LGBTI Journalists for two investigative articles written for Vice News about transphobia in the EHRC. As at October, 2024, he is an anchor and correspondent at CNN, working out of its Atlanta and London offices.

Personal life

Hunte has talked extensively about life as a Black gay man and the abuse he receives being in the public eye, as well as his experiences of sexual abuse. He appeared on the cover of ''

Attitude Attitude or Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind ** Attitude change * Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition Science and technology * Orientation ...

'' 25th anniversary edition in March 2019, and in the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' ES Magazine.

References

External links

*
CNN page

Vice page

BBC page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunte, Ben 1991 births Living people 21st-century British journalists Alumni of City, University of London Black British writers English male journalists English people of Guyanese descent English people of Jamaican descent English gay writers Journalists from London LGBTQ people from London Black British LGBTQ people English LGBTQ journalists People from Walthamstow People from Woodford, London 21st-century English LGBTQ people CNN people BBC people Vice Media