Emily Maitlis

Emily Maitlis (born 6 September 1970) is a Canadian-born British journalist and broadcaster who served as the lead presenter of BBC Two's Newsnight programme from 2018 until her departure in 2022. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, and raised in Sheffield, England, after her family relocated due to her father's academic career, Maitlis graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge, with a degree in English. She began her journalism career reporting from Hong Kong ahead of the 1997 handover to China before joining the BBC, where she rose to prominence for her forensic interviewing of political figures, including multiple UK prime ministers and US presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Her 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew regarding his association with Jeffrey Epstein secured Interview of the Year, Scoop of the Year, and Network Presenter of the Year at the 2020 RTS Television Journalism Awards, and was instrumental in prompting the prince's withdrawal from royal duties. In 2022, Maitlis left the BBC alongside colleagues Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall to co-found and host The News Agents podcast for Global, which has since expanded to live tours and remains active as of 2025. Throughout her BBC tenure, Maitlis was formally censured on at least two occasions for breaching impartiality guidelines, including a 2021 social media endorsement lacking context that praised Piers Morgan's comments on Meghan Markle and a 2020 on-air monologue asserting Dominic Cummings violated lockdown rules without sufficient balance. These incidents highlight tensions between her assertive style and the broadcaster's editorial standards, amid broader critiques of systemic biases within UK public service media.

Emily Maitlis was born on 6 September 1970 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to British parents Peter Maitlis, a professor of inorganic chemistry, and Marion Basco, a psychotherapist. Her birth occurred while her father was temporarily teaching at McMaster University in Canada. The family, of Jewish descent with her paternal grandmother having fled Nazi Germany as a refugee, relocated to Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom shortly after, where Maitlis spent her childhood.