Reeta Chakrabarti (born 12 December 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader and correspondent for
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 ...
. She is known for presenting ''
BBC News at One
The ''BBC News at One'' is the BBC's afternoon news programme on British television channels BBC One and the BBC News channel with British Sign Language Interpretation, broadcast weekdays at 1:00pm and produced by BBC News. The programme runs fo ...
'', ''
BBC News at Six
The ''BBC News at Six'' is the BBC's evening news programme on British television channels BBC One and BBC News (British TV channel), BBC News (UK feed), broadcast weeknights at 6:00pm and produced by BBC News. It is normally broadcast for 30 ...
'', ''
BBC News at Ten
''BBC News at Ten'' (formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'') is the BBC's flagship evening news programme on British television channels BBC One and the BBC News Channel, broadcast nightly at 10:00pm and pr ...
'' and ''
BBC Weekend News
''BBC Weekend News'' is the BBC's national news programme on BBC One at the weekend and bank holidays, although it is often referred to on guides simply as ''BBC News''. It is called ''BBC Weekend News'' on all bulletins and carries generic BBC ...
'', and presenting regularly on the
BBC News Channel
The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...
and occasionally
BBC World News
BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...
.
Chakrabarti has also reported extensively in the UK and abroad for BBC News.
Early life
Reeta Chakrabarti was born on 12 December 1964 in
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...
, London to an Indian
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
family and was raised in
Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft
* Submarine hull
Ma ...
and
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
. As a teenager she lived in
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, India, attending the
Calcutta International School and
King Edward VI High School for Girls
King Edward VI High School for Girls (KEHS) is an all-girls public school (United Kingdom), public school located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1883 and occupies the same site as, and is twinned with the King Edward's Scho ...
.
Chakrabarti studied English and French at
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university.
The college was founde ...
, from 1984 to 1988, including a year in France. Of her time at Oxford, Chakrabarti said, "I loved my time there. There weren't – then – many people from my background at university. But that didn’t stop my experience from being overwhelmingly good."
Career
BBC Radio 4
Chakrabarti started as a producer on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
, working on the ''
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* The current day and calendar date
** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone
* Now, the time that is perceived directly, present
* The current, present era
Arts, entertainment and m ...
'' programme, ''
The World at One
''The World at One'' (or ''WATO'', pronounced "what-oh") is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs radio programme, broadcast weekdays from 13:00 to 13:45 and produced by BBC News. The programme describes itself as "Bri ...
'' and ''
PM'' before becoming a reporter on ''5 Live Breakfast'', in which she covered the
French presidential elections, and the
Dunblane massacre
The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton killed 16 pupils and one teacher and injured 15 others before killing himself. It remains the d ...
.
BBC Radio 1
In 1992, she started working at
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
, specifically ''
Newsbeat
''Newsbeat'' is the BBC's radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. ''Newsbeat'' is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for young people. '', writing and delivering news bulletins for ''
Steve Wright in the Afternoon
''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' was the name given to the English DJ Steve Wright's popular radio shows. Wright's afternoon show was known by that name from 1989.
Wright presented the afternoon show on BBC Radio 1 regularly from 30 March 198 ...
'' and News 92.
BBC News
In 1997 she became one of the BBC's community affairs correspondents, covering the
Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Adrian Lawrence (13September 1974 – 22April 1993) was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the ...
inquest and subsequent public inquiry. She also covered home affairs including the
Damilola Taylor
Damilola Adegbite (born Oluwadamilola Adegbite; 18 May 1985) is a Nigerian actress, model, and television personality. She played Telema Duke in the soap opera ''Tinsel'', and Kemi Williams in the movie '' Flower Girl''. She won Best Actress in a ...
murder trial and Health.
As a political correspondent at Westminster from 1999 she appeared on both television and radio, reporting on political stories for BBC1, BBC2, the BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live. During this time Chakrabarti covered three UK general elections, several changes of party leaders, with other notable stories including the
Cash for Honours
The Cash-for-Honours scandal (also known as Cash for Peerages, Loans for Lordships, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations a ...
affair and MPs' expenses. Occasionally she presented real-time audience reactions to debates.
In 2010 she became an education correspondent and covered changes to university tuition fees, the introduction of free schools, growth in academies and changes to exams and the curriculum.
She has reported on social matters, with stories relating to adoption, poverty, and social mobility in the UK. She reported from a ship in the Mediterranean on the
European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and Human migration, migrants into Europe, mostly from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request Right of asyl ...
in 2016 and 2017. During 2017 and 2018, she reported three times on the
Rohingya crisis from Bangladesh and Myanmar, and anchored the BBC's coverage of the 70th anniversary of the
partition of India and Pakistan in 2017. She was part of the studio team for the 2019 UK general election, and the 2020 US presidential election. She was also one of the presenters of the BBC's news coverage of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
In March 2022 Chakrabarti was the main BBC presenter in
Lviv
Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
in western Ukraine, anchoring the news bulletins 10 days after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. In April 2022 she anchored the BBC's coverage of the French presidential election from Paris.
She has also presented on BBC World and Radio 4's ''
The World Tonight
''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on dome ...
''.
Author
Chakrabarti's first novel, ''Finding Belle'', will be published in May 2025.
Awards and honours
Chakrabarti was named an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 2018. She was also made an honorary doctor of letters by
York St John University
York St John University (originally established as York Diocesan College), often abbreviated to YSJ, is a public university located on a large urban campus in York, England. Established in 1841, it achieved university status in 2006 and in 2015 ...
in 2018, and became the
chancellor
Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
of
York St John University
York St John University (originally established as York Diocesan College), often abbreviated to YSJ, is a public university located on a large urban campus in York, England. Established in 1841, it achieved university status in 2006 and in 2015 ...
in 2019 and an honorary fellow of University College, London in 2019. She is also an honorary fellow of the University of East London.
In December 2022 Chakrabarti was a member of the team for Exeter College, Oxford, which reached the semi-final in BBC Two's ''
Christmas University Challenge
''Christmas University Challenge'' is a British quiz programme which has aired on BBC Two since 19 December 2011. It is a spin-off from ''University Challenge'' that airs daily over the Christmas period, and features teams of noteworthy alumn ...
''.
Personal life
Chakrabarti is married to Paul Hamilton, professor of English at
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...
. They live in
East Finchley
East Finchley is an area in North London, immediately north of Hampstead Heath. Like neighbouring Muswell Hill, it straddles the London Boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey, with most of East F ...
,
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...
and have three children. Her younger sister,
Lolita Chakrabarti
Lolita Chakrabarti (born 1969) is a British actress and writer.
Early life and education
Lolita Chakrabarti was born in Kingston upon Hull, England, to Bengali Hindu parents from India in 1969. She grew up in Birmingham, where her father wo ...
is a British actress and writer and her brother-in-law
Adrian Lester
Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey on 14 August 1968) is a British actor. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the London stage, an ...
is an actor. She is a fan of the poet
John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...
, and chose him as her specialist subject on the BBC television quiz ''
Celebrity Mastermind
''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. ''Celebrity Mastermind'' began in 2002 as a one-off special hosted by Magnus Magnusson, the original host of the main ...
'' broadcast on 22 December 2016.
Chakrabarti is a patron of Pan Intercultural Arts, a UK charity that uses the arts to empower marginalised young people and unlock their potential. She is also a patron of the Oxford University Media Society, and became a trustee for the Keats Shelley Memorial Association in 2021. She was a judge for the David Cohen Prize for Literature 2021 and chaired the panel of judges choosing the Costa Book of the Year 2021.
References
External links
*
BBC Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chakrabarti, Reeta
1964 births
Living people
English people of Indian descent
English people of Bengali descent
English political commentators
People from Ealing
BBC newsreaders and journalists
People educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
English women journalists
20th-century British journalists
21st-century British journalists