Reeta Chakrabarti

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Reeta Chakrabarti
Born (1964-12-12) 12 December 1964 (age 56)
London, England, UK
EducationExeter College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist, News presenter
EmployerBBC
Spouse(s)Paul Hamilton
RelativesLolita Chakrabarti (sister)

Reeta Chakrabarti (born 12 December 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader and correspondent for BBC News. She is known for presenting BBC News at One, BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten and BBC Weekend News, and presenting regularly on the BBC News Channel.

She has also reported extensively in the UK and abroad for BBC News.

Early life[]

Chakrabarti was born in Ealing, London to an Indian Bengali family and was raised in Birmingham. As a teenager she lived in India, attending the Calcutta International School in Kolkata.[1]

Chakrabarti studied English and French at Exeter College, Oxford from 1984 to 1988, including a year in France.[2] 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."[3]

Career[]

In 1994, Chakrabarti became a reporter for the Breakfast Programme on the newly launched BBC Radio 5 Live.[4] She later became a general news correspondent working on television as well as radio.

In 1997, she became the BBC Community Affairs correspondent, covering the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and also working on Home Affairs.

In 1999 Chakrabarti secured her role as political correspondent for the BBC, working across a range of programmes in television and radio, reporting on politics for BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live. In January 2011 she was the education correspondent for BBC News. In May 2014 she was appointed as news presenter on BBC One and the BBC News Channel.

Reeta has chaired and hosted numerous corporate events, including the 2003 and 2004 Educational Television Awards Dinners for the Royal Television Society.[5] She also hosted the 2018 TV Journalism awards for the RTS. In April 2018, she acted as host for the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Buckingham Palace.

In October 2019, it was announced that Chakrabarti was to follow Dr John Sentamu as Chancellor of York St John University. She took up the post in March 2020.[6] In November 2021 she participated in an episode of the BBC Two programme Celebrity Antiques Road Trip with fellow newsreader Clive Myrie.

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 in 2018, and an honorary fellow of University College, London in 2019. She is also an honorary fellow of the University of East London.

Personal life[]

Chakrabarti is married to Paul Hamilton, Professor of English at Queen Mary University of London. They live in North London and have three children. She is a fan of the poet John Keats and chose this as her specialist subject on the BBC television quiz Celebrity Mastermind broadcast on 22 December 2016.[7]

Reeta is a Patron of Pan Intercultural Arts, a UK charity that uses the arts to empower marginalised young people and unlock their potential.[8] She is also a patron of the Oxford University Media Society, and became a trustee for the Keats Shelley Memorial Association in 2021. She is a judge for the David Cohen Prize for Literature 2021.

References[]

  1. ^ University of East London Archived October 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Chakrabarti, Reeta. "Reeta Chakrabarti on language and culture". OpenLearn. The Open University. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  3. ^ "Reeta Chakrabarti among portraits commissioned to reflect Oxford University's diversity". Exeter College. 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  4. ^ "Reeta Chakrabarti". 12 September 2005 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ^ "rts.org.uk".
  6. ^ "York St John University announces Reeta Chakrabarti as new Chancellor". York St John University. October 15, 2019.
  7. ^ "Celebrity Mastermind 2016/2017, episode 4".
  8. ^ "Trustees and Patrons". Pan Intercultural Arts. Pan Intercultural Arts. Archived from the original on 2015-07-12.

External links[]

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