Emily Maitlis

Emily Maitlis (born 6 September 1970) is a British journalist, documentary filmmaker, and former newsreader for the BBC.

She was the lead anchor of the BBC Two news and current affairs programme Newsnight until the end of 2021, and is current presenter of the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio.

She spent six years in Hong Kong with TVB News and NBC Asia, initially as a business reporter creating documentaries, and then as a presenter in Hong Kong covering the collapse of the tiger economies in 1997.

She also covered the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong with Jon Snow for Channel 4.

She then moved to Sky News in the UK as a business correspondent, and then to BBC London News when the programme was relaunched in 2001.

During 2005, Maitlis appeared as the question-master on the game show The National Lottery: Come And Have A Go.

She was a regular presenter on BBC News Channel for a decade between 2006 and 2016, alongside Ben Brown and Jon Sopel.

She also presented BBC Breakfast and from May 2006 until July 2007 presented STORYFix on BBC News, a light-hearted look at the week's news set to up-beat music.

She first joined the programme as a relief presenter in 2006, working her way up to be lead anchor of the programme following the departure of Evan Davis in 2018.

After each show, before bed, she answered emails from viewers.

In July 2007, she was appointed as a contributing editor to The Spectator magazine, an unpaid post.

This had been approved by her immediate manager, the head of BBC Television News Peter Horrocks, but the decision was subsequently overturned by his superior, the BBC News director Helen Boaden.

In 2012, Maitlis presented the US 2012 election coverage on BBC One and the BBC News Channel alongside David Dimbleby, when incumbent US President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were fighting for the presidency of the US.

In 2016, she presented a news discussion programme called This Week's World on BBC Two, late afternoon on Saturdays.

Maitlis was a main presenter of Newsnight on BBC Two, alongside Kirsty Wark and Emma Barnett.

She is known internationally as the interviewer for the November 2019 hour long BBC interview with Prince Andrew, Duke of York in which she probed the prince's relationship with the American convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Maitlis was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to British Jewish parents; her paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany.

She is the daughter of Professor Peter Maitlis FRS, Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, and Marion Maitlis, a psychotherapist.

She was brought up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire with her two older sisters, Nicky and Sally.

She was educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield, and then studied English at Queens' College, Cambridge.

As of 2019 she was the only Newsnight presenter not to have attended a private school.

Maitlis initially wanted to work as a director, prompted by her love for drama, but instead went into radio broadcasting.

Prior to working in news, she was a documentary maker in Cambodia and China.

She worked for the NBC network and was based in Hong Kong.

In April 2019, she published Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News, a book describing how television news is produced.

In November 2019, Maitlis interviewed Prince Andrew, Duke of York, about his relationship with American sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died in August whilst awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The interview was broadcast on the BBC's Newsnight programme on 16 November 2019.

Due in part to the disastrous fallout from Prince Andrew's performance during this interview, he resigned from his royal duties.

In 2019, Maitlis was amongst the highest paid BBC news and current affairs staff, receiving a salary between £260,000-£264,999.

In a Newsnight discussion concerning Brexit on 15 July 2019 it was alleged by a viewer that Maitlis had been "sneering and bullying" towards columnist Rod Liddle.

In February 2020, her interview with Prince Andrew won Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year awards at the 2020 RTS Television Journalism Awards, and Maitlis is reportedly making a scripted drama with Blueprint Pictures of this interview.

From 2020, Maitlis presented the BBC podcast, Americast, with Jon Sopel, the BBC's North America editor.

The podcasts originally focused on the 2020 election and contain analysis as well as an array of interviews from across the political scene.

Americast received positive reviews and performed well becoming one of UK's most listened to podcast of any genre.

On 22 February 2022, Maitlis announced her resignation from the BBC after signing with Global, the parent of LBC, to launch a daily podcast and joint radio show again with ex-BBC journalist, Jon Sopel.

In an address at the 2022 Edinburgh TV Festival, Maitlis cautioned journalists about self-censorship in the name of being reluctant to take on populist critics.

The News Agents, a daily podcast from Global Media presented by Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall was launched on 30 August 2022.

The opening edition, titled Trump – Prison or President?, focused on the FBI investigation into Donald Trump's handling of presidential documents, with Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House Director of Communications, appearing as a guest.

In May 2023, Maitlis was featured in a two-part Channel 4 documentary called Andrew: The Problem Prince; which explores the events leading up to Prince Andrew's infamous Newsnight interview of 2019.

In November 2023, Maitlis was named as an executive producer on A Very Royal Scandal with Maitlis being played by Ruth Wilson and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.