Amol Rajan is a broadcaster for the BBC. Twice a week, he presents Radio 4's flagship Today programme. He also presents University Challenge, replacing Jeremy Paxman as only the third host in the show's history. He has a prime-time interview show, called Amol Rajan Interviews. The most recent interviewee was Bill Gates. He hosts podcasts on subjects like Education and Climate Change. And he makes current affairs documentaries, mostly on social mobility. The most recent series was called How to Crack the Class Ceiling, and is on the iPlayer.
Prior to all this, he has presented many other shows at the BBC, from The One Show on BBC One to Zoe Ball's Breakfast Show on Radio 2; Start the Week and The Media Show on Radio 4; and for many years he was a food critic on MasterChef. He has just stepped down from his position as Media Editor for BBC News, leading the Corporation's coverage of media and technology globally.
Before joining the BBC, he spent nearly a decade in newspapers. He was appointed Editor of The Independent newspaper aged 29, the youngest Editor of a broadsheet in British history, and the first from an ethnic minority. He spent his gap year at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, before reading English at Downing College, University of Cambridge. He was Editor of Varsity, the student newspaper. His first book, Twirlymen, was a history of spin bowling in cricket. He is the co-founder of KEY Sessions, a charity for inner city teenagers in London.
He grew up in Tooting in south London.
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