Raj Mathai is an American

television journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

. He is the primary news anchor at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

-owned

KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Sta ...

in the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Bay Area.

Career

Mathai anchors the 6pm, 7pm and 11pm newscasts for NBC Bay Area KNTV and hosts the series ''The Interview.'' The series sets Mathai with newsmakers such as Vice President

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and

General Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

. In 2013, Mathai conducted exclusive interviews with

John McAfee John David McAfee ( ; 18 September 1945 – 23 June 2021) was a British and American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party (United States), Libertarian Party nominat ...

about his life and his legal troubles. Mathai field anchors KNTV's breaking news and big event coverage including the 2024 Super Bowl, 2017 Inauguration of Donald Trump, 2017 Las Vegas massacre and the 2016 San Bernardino shootings. He led KNTV's coverage of the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport. He was on the air for seven consecutive hours and was the first journalist to interview a survivor of the crash. Mathai is also a moderator for the

Commonwealth Club of California The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to ...

and a guest lecturer for the Stanford School of Business. Mathai is a 3-time Olympic torch bearer and has reported on-location from the Olympics in Tokyo, London, Vancouver, Turin, Athens and Salt Lake City. Prior to his news career, Mathai was a sportscaster for NBC Bay Area (1998–2010). In 1995 he became the first Indian sportscaster for a network affiliate in the United States when he began at

KYMA-DT KYMA-DT (channels 11 and 13) is a television station licensed to Yuma, Arizona, United States, serving the Yuma, Arizona– El Centro, California market as an affiliate of CBS and NBC. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications, which maint ...

. He worked for NBC affiliates

KNSD KNSD (channel 39, cable channel 7), branded on air as NBC 7 San Diego, is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations d ...

in San Diego,

in Yuma, AZ, and

KSEE KSEE (channel 24) is a television station in Fresno, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KGPE (channel 47). The two stations share studios on McKinley Avenue in eastern ...

in Fresno, CA. He was an Olympic torch bearer in 1996, 2002, and 2008. Mathai co-hosted ''Sports Sunday'' along with

Jerry Rice Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played for 20 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He won three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers before two shorter ...

Nnamdi Asomugha Nnamdi Asomugha ( ; born July 6, 1981) is an American actor, director, producer, and former professional football cornerback who played 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Oakland Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Fran ...

Jeff Garcia Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). After attending high school and junior college in ...

and Ken Norton Jr. He was part of the NBC broadcast team for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

from 2008–2012 along with

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997, he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball ann ...

and

Mike Krukow Michael Edward Krukow (born January 21, 1952), nicknamed "Kruk", is an American sportscaster and former professional baseball player. As a starting pitcher, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and ...

Awards

Mathai is a 12-time Emmy Award winner, including regional Emmys for Best On-Camera Talent, Breaking News, Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Cultural Program for his coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. Mathai was also honored by the California State Legislature in 2024 for his contributions to the AAPI Community.

Personal life

Mathai was born in

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He lived in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

until age 7, when he moved

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. He comes from a family of journalists and writers, including his father TJ Mathew who ran magazines in India in the 1970s, and his uncle

T. J. S. George Thayil Jacob Sony George (born 7 May 1928) is an Indian writer and biographer who received a Padma Bhushan award in 2011 in the field of literature and education.

, who founded ''

Asiaweek ''Asiaweek'' was an English-language news magazine focusing on Asia, published weekly by Asiaweek Limited, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Based in Hong Kong, it was established in 1975, and ceased publication with its 7 December 2001 issue due to a ...

''. Mathai is the cousin of best-selling authors Abraham Verghese and

Jeet Thayil Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including ''These Errors Are Correct'' (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, ''Narcopolis (book ...

. He is also the nephew of

Thomas Kailath Thomas Kailath (born June 7, 1935) is an India-born American electrical engineer, information theorist, control engineer, entrepreneur and the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering emeritus at Stanford University. Professor Kailath has autho ...

, noted Stanford Professor. Mathai attended Los Altos High School and

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

where he graduated with a degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

in 1993. Prior to his career as a broadcaster, Mathai was a public relations assistant with the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

. He was also part of the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

staff for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

in 1993 and 1994. Mathai is on the Board of Governors for the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

and Board Member for the Asian Pacific Fund.

References

External links

NBC Bay Area Profile of Raj Mathai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathai, Raj Living people 1971 births American television journalists Writers from Thiruvananthapuram People from Palo Alto, California American male journalists American writers of Indian descent Journalists from California