KNOWN for her cool, calm, politically astute and unbiased yet direct style, journalist Mishal Husain has emerged as the country’s one of the most notable interviewers. She is an interviewer whom politicians now dread – owing to her incisive style and a no-nonsense approach. Husain is best known for presenting Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC News at Ten on BBC 1. She has also guest hosted The Andrew Marr Show, as well as BBC Breakfast, BBC News at Six, BBC World News, Impact and HARD talk. She also occasionally fills in as a presenter for the weekday edition of BBC News at Ten and BBC News at Six.

One of her recent disruptive interview moments happened in November last year when she clashed with the Israeli government’s spokesperson Eylon Levy over the number of Palestinians killed since the Israel-Hamas war began and tension quickly built as she started to ask him about the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. In fact, the Today Programme is said to have dramatically changed after she came on board, about a decade ago as the first woman of colour to join the male-dominated team. However, apart from her incisive take on politicians, Husain is also known for her cool professional demeanour. No wonder she was called in to work when the queen was dying to announce her death on Radio 4 and was later chosen to present the news of the Hamas attack on Israel. Born in Northampton in 1973 to a journalist mother and doctor father who had emigrated from Pakistan, Husain’s family moved to the United Arab Emirates when she was two.

She returned to England for boarding school and later studied law at Cambridge University before becoming a BBC World anchor. Initially she worked behind the camera and