Ziya Tong is an English-born Canadian

television personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

and producer, formerly the co-host of

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

's long-running primetime science magazine, ''

Daily Planet The ''Daily Planet'' is a fictional newspaper appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The newspaper was first mentioned in ''Action Comics'' #9 (November 13, 1939) – Underworld Politics ...

''.Denise Duguay, "Island tour too rushed", ''Leader Post'', Regina, Saskatchewan: December 16, 2005, p. F.3.

Early life and education

Ziya Tong was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, of Chinese and Macedonian descent,Malcolm Parry,
Young soprano shows her bombshell style
", ''

The Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'', December 23, 2006, p. B.4. and later lived in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. She moved from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

when she was 11. She received her B.A. degree from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

in psychology and sociology. At

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, she graduated with an M.A. in Communications.

Career

After university, she worked as a reporter, and as a senior producer for the news-portal Orientation Global Networks in New York. Tong began hosting the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

series '' ZeD'' in the 2004–05 season, succeeding

Sharon Lewis Sharon M. Lewis is a Canadian television personality and film director from Toronto, Ontario. She studied political science at the University of Toronto.John McKay, "Sharon Lewis finds activism experience a plus for new role as CounterSpin host, ...

. For this, she was nominated for a

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's English-language television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in t ...

for Viewer's Choice for Lifestyle Host in 2005. After ''ZeD'', Tong was hired by CTV to host the television series ''Island Escapes'', which premiered on January 6, 2006. Critic Denise Duguay called her a "lively and game travel host". In this position, she visited many exotic island locations, and highlighted the attractions of places such as

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, Bedarra Island and

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. Starting in January 2007 she worked as a host and producer for two science shows, ''

Wired Science ''Wired Science'' was a weekly television program that covered modern scientific and technological topics. In January 2007 PBS aired pilot episodes for three different science programs, including ''Wired Science''. Using Nielsen ratings, CPB-sp ...

'' on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and ''The Leading Edge'', a Canadian science series on The Knowledge Network. Tong has also written for ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' magazine and blogged on the Wired Science site for PBS. She also was a reporter for ''

NOVA A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

'' on PBS. After joining

's ''

'' as a guest host for November and December 2008, she was named the new permanent co-host of the daily science program. For three years, Tong co-hosted ''

'' with science journalist

Jay Ingram Jay Ingram Order of Canada, CM (born March 20, 1945) is a Canadian author, broadcaster and science communicator. He was host of the television show ''Daily Planet (TV series), Daily Planet'' (originally titled ''@discovery.ca''), which aired on ...

. When Ingram retired from the program in June 2011, Tong was joined by co-host Dan Riskin and since, the show has generated record ratings as it completed its 18th season on Canadian television. Tong also writes and produces '' Ziyology'', a weekly column looking at wonder and science. She appears regularly on ''

Canada AM ''Canada AM'' is a Canadian morning television news show that aired on CTV from 1972 to 2016. Its final hosts were Beverly Thomson and Marci Ien, with Jeff Hutcheson presenting the weather forecast and sports. The program aired on weekdays, an ...

'', CTV News Channel,

CP24 CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT (CTV Toronto) and CKVR-DT ( ...

and ''

CTV National News ''CTV National News'' is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in Sc ...

''. Tong has travelled to more than 60 countries. She is fluent in English and Cantonese, she is working on her French, Mandarin and Arabic. She serves on the board of directors of the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

(WWF) Canada. Her non-fiction book ''The Reality Bubble'' was published by Penguin Random House in May 2019. The book was nominated for the 2020 RCC Charles Taylor Prize. She defended Max Eisen's memoir ''By Chance Alone'' in the 2019 edition of ''

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Fre ...

''. The book won the competition. In 2024 Tong and Ben Addelman codirected the documentary film ''

Plastic People "Plastic People" is the first track of the Mothers of Invention's 1967 album '' Absolutely Free''. A live version from 1969 is featured on '' You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1'', released in 1988, as Track 1 on disc 2, along with a "Louie ...

'', for which they won the

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

for Best Direction in a Documentary Program at the

13th Canadian Screen Awards The 13th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 30 May to 1 June 2025, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2024. The main gala was held on 1 Jun ...

in 2025.Pat Mullen
"The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal Dominates Canadian Screen Award Doc Winners"
''

Point of View Point of View or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...

'', May 31, 2025.

Career timeline

* 2004–2005: '' ZeD'' host * 2006: "Island Escape" host * 2007: "Leading Edge" host,

host and producer * 2008–2009: ''

'' reporter, co-host * 2008–2018: ''

'' co-host

References

External links

Ziya Tong's Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tong, Ziya 1980 births Living people English emigrants to Canada English emigrants to Hong Kong English people of Chinese descent British people of Macedonian descent Canadian bloggers Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Macedonian descent Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian television hosts Canadian television producers Canadian women television producers Journalists from London Journalists from Toronto Hong Kong emigrants to Canada McGill University alumni Naturalized citizens of Canada Writers from London Writers from Toronto University of British Columbia alumni Canadian women bloggers Canadian women television journalists Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian science writers Canadian women television hosts 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian science journalists Canadian Screen Award winning directors