Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith is a seasoned reporter and presenter with more than three decades of experience working at the BBC and Channel 4.  She is currently the BBC's North American Editor.  

She is the only woman to have led coverage of North American for both the BBC and Channel 4 as well as being the BBC’s first Scotland Editor. She covered the US Election and was with the Kamala Harris campaign on election night.

Sarah has presented current affairs programmes at home and reported on major stories across the globe, including the Fukishima disaster and the Madrid bombings, for which Channel 4 won an International Emmy.

Career

Sarah joined BBC Scotland from university as a graduate trainee. As well as working in Scotland she spent a year with BBC Northern Ireland where she had first-hand experience of the political violence being held at gun point in West Belfast.

In 1991 Sarah moved to London to work with BBC Youth Programmes as an assistant producer for programmes including Rough Guide, Rapido and Reportage. After two years Sarah moved to news and current affairs with credits including Newsnight and Public Eye.

After leaving the BBC in 1996 Sarah worked as a reporter for 5 News for two years before joining Channel 4 News as Scotland Correspondent where she also worked as a presenter.

In 2005 Sarah broke new ground becoming the first anchor of More4 nightly news as it launched on the digital channel.

Appointed Channel 4 Washington Correspondent in 2007 Sarah’s coverage included the ground-breaking election of President Obama and the Haiti earthquake before moving to become Business Correspondent in 2011.

In the run up to Scotland’s independence referendum Sarah re-joined the BBC to co-present BBC Two’s Scottish current affairs programme Scotland 2014. In 2015 Sarah was appointed the BBC’s Scotland Editor with a remit to cover Scottish news for a UK audience. In 2017 Sarah added presenting Sunday Politics to her portfolio as she succeeded Andrew Neil in the role.

Sarah is now based back in Washington DC following her appointment as BBC North America Editor in November 2021.