Amol Rajan

Amol Rajan is a Radio 4 Today programme and podcast presenter, host of University Challenge and presenter of the acclaimed Amol Rajan Interviews series

Amol was the youngest Editor of a broadsheet newspaper in Britain and the first from an ethnic minority in more than a century when he was appointed by The Independent at the age of 29.

Career

He got his first break into television as the mic boy at The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 before researching and then helping to present the programme during its 2006-7 series. 

Amol joined The Independent in the summer of 2007 going on to fill a variety of roles as news reporter, sports correspondent, columnist and comment editor. He also wrote a column in the Evening Standard and was restaurant critic for The Independent on Sunday. 

In 2013 he was appointed Editor of The Independent and stayed on as Editor-at-Large as the paper transformed from a printed paper to a digital only product.

In 2016 Amol joined the BBC as it’s first ever Media Editor leading its journalism on media and technology globally. He has also regularly provided holiday cover for presenters on Radio 2, presented the Media Show on Radio 4 and been an occasional presenter on BBC One’s The One Show. 

He has also presented The Imperial Inversion of Cricket, Archive on 4: Rivers of Blood and The Decline of the West as well as appearing on, among others,  Question Time, Masterchef, Great British Menu, Newsnight, The Daily Politics, The Andrew Marr Show and Celebrity Mastermind where he finished second with his specialist subject Shane Warne.

In 2021 he presented a 2-part TV documentary, and a 10-part podcast, on Britain's Royal Family. He has also conducted many interviews, some of which featured in his television show Amol Rajan Interviews.

Books

Amol’s 2011 book Twirlymen: The Unlikely History of Cricket’s Greatest Spin Bowlers tells the story of the cerebral artists who mystify batsmen to conjure wickets out of thin air.

Based on his hit podcast, Rethink was published in 2021. Edited and introduced by Amol, the book has contributions from major international figures examining how public and private life can be improved post-pandemic.  

Personal Life

Amol is the co-founder of KEY Sessions, a charity for inner city teenagers in London. He is a huge fan of reggae and cricket, he plays for the Authors XI as a batting all-rounder.

Amol lives in London with his wife and three children.