Keir Hardie Brennan-Simmons (born 1972) is an English journalist. He has been the chief international correspondent for the NBC morning show ''Today'' since December 2018. He also appears regularly on the evening broadcast ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...

'', and fills in as an anchor on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. From August 2012 until December 2018, Simmons was a foreign correspondent for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

. Previously, he was the UK editor for

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British news television channel of ITV (TV network), ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. ITN, Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the netwo ...

Early life and education

Simmons was born in London and raised in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. He was educated at Wellsway School, a

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

in the town of

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located on the outskirts of the city of Bristol on the A4 that links the cities of Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. It had a population of 19,603 at the 2021 Census. It was listed i ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

and St Brendans College, a

Catholic school, followed by

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

, a

constituent college A collegiate university is a university where functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the Col ...

of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree. His sister is actress and health campaigner Mika Simmons.

Career

Simmons's first job in journalism was as a court reporter covering murders and scandals in London at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

. He then moved into radio, joining

as a reporter for UK's Independent Radio News ( IRN) in 1996, before becoming a general reporter on its

service in 1998. While at ITV, Simmons reported on major domestic and international stories including the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

, the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11 attacks, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist o ...

, the

poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and its predecessor, the KGB, until he left the service and fled the country in late 2000. In 1998, Litvinenko and several other Russian intelligence officers sa ...

and the

Virginia Tech shooting The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree killer, spree shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Tech, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksbu ...

. He was one of the first journalists to cover the 2007

disappearance of Madeleine McCann Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person, who at the age of 3 disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, Lagos, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007. ''The Daily Telegraph'' ...

. In 2010, Simmons was the first to report that the UK government was paying millions of pounds in compensation to former prisoners of the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...

. On 30 September 2010,

announced that Simmons would be appointed as the new UK Editor.' In 2011, Simmons led ITV's coverage of the

News International phone hacking scandal Beginning in the 1990s, and going as far until its shutdown in 2011, employees of the now-defunct newspaper ''News of the World'' engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Investi ...

, breaking stories which included news of the arrest of key figures and the resignation of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson While working as a reporter for

, Simmons occasionally made on-air appearances on

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

, ''

5 News ''5 News'' is the flagship news programme of British broadcaster 5. It is produced by ITN from its main newsroom on London's Gray's Inn Road, and has been broadcast since Channel 5's launch in March 1997. History ''5 News'' was one of the n ...

'', and

ITV London ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is ...

's ''London Tonight.'' In September and October 2011, he guest presented on

ITV Breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as ''GMTV, GMTV Limited'') is the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November ...

program '' Daybreak''. On 27 August 2012 Simmons left

to join

as a London-based foreign correspondent. He reported for all platforms of

, including ''Today'', ''Nightly News'',

, and NBCNews.com.

NBC News (2012–present)

In December 2018, Simmons was named Senior International Correspondent for ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' on

. He appears regularly on ''

'' and as a fill-in anchor on

. Simmons interviewed

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

in person in Moscow on 11 June 2021. He interviewed the Japanese Prime Minister in person in Tokyo in July 2021. He reported on the death of Queen Elizabeth on 8 September 2022. On 28 February 2023, NBC published a report by Simmons from

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. Simmons said he travelled to Crimea by train from Moscow on the Kerch Bridge. Visiting Crimea from Russia is illegal under Ukrainian law and Ukrainian authorities said they were investigating the circumstances of the illegal visit. In response to the visit, Simmons was added to the

Myrotvorets Myrotvorets or Mirotvorets (, ; ) is a Ukrainian Kyiv-based website that publishes a running list, and sometimes personal information, of people who are considered by authors of the website to be "enemies of Ukraine", or, as the website itself ...

list of 'Enemies of Ukraine'.

Awards

In 2003, Simmons was nominated for a

Royal Television Society Award The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

. In 2016, he was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in the category 'Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine' for his contribution to a Dateline NBC special 'Terror in Paris'. In 2017, he was nominated for an

in the category 'Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine' for his contribution to a TODAY Show special 'Terror in Brussels'.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Keir 1972 births 20th-century English non-fiction writers 21st-century English writers 5 News presenters and reporters Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London English editors English television journalists Financial Times people ITN newsreaders and journalists Living people NBC News people News editors British newspaper journalists Journalists from Bristol Sky News newsreaders and journalists English television editors Television personalities from London Writers from London