Philippa Thomas

Philippa Thomas (born 22 November 1965) is a British television newsreader and journalist, both domestic and foreign, at the BBC and a chief news presenter at BBC World News, presenting evening bulletins on BBC News Channel and BBC World News. She is currently presenter of "Coronavirus: Your Stories" on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel.

Philippa Thomas
Born	22 November 1965
Occupation	Journalist, presenter, newsreader
Employer	BBC
Notable credit(s)	World News Today with Philippa Thomas BBC World News BBC News
Children	One son

Early life and education

She was raised in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the daughter of an English teacher and an air force pilot and attended a state comprehensive.[1] Thomas read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford from 1984.[2]

Career

After graduating from university with a double-first, Thomas gained a place on the BBC News Trainee scheme. Of the final 8, she was the only female.[1] Thomas has reported extensively from the United States, South America, Africa, and continental Europe. She was posted as presenter and special correspondent in the BBC Washington bureau from 2007[3] to 2010, where she anchored political coverage, and filmed original features on U.S. politics, economics and culture. Her stories aired on BBC World News, PBS news broadcasts, BBC America's World News America, and the BBC online.

Before that, during 2007 and 2008, Thomas presented the 22:00 ET edition of World News Today, a one-hour news programme on the BBC World News and BBC News. From 1997 to 2001, she was also a BBC North America correspondent, providing headline news from the impeachment of President Clinton to the global impact of the 9/11 attacks. From 1990 to 1997, she was a BBC Political Correspondent reporting from Westminster, Belfast and Dublin, including extensive coverage of the Northern Ireland peace process.

While a Nieman Journalism Fellow (2010–2011) at Harvard University, studying digital media and citizen journalism, a blog post by Thomas reporting a comment by P.J. Crowley received wide coverage,[4] and resulted in Crowley's resignation. She returned to her BBC broadcast duties in July 2011. Since returning to the UK Thomas has appeared as a correspondent on BBC News.

Since January 2013, Thomas has been a full time presenter on the relaunched BBC World News, first as the main presenter of World News Today. She is also an occasional presenter of The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 and Newshour on the BBC World Service.

Thomas is a special elections presenter for BBC World Service - anchoring rolling news coverage of UK and US elections since 2015.

In 2018, Thomas made a cameo appearance as herself in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Notes

1. "Access all areas: Philippa Thomas, BBC World Service News Presenter". The Access Project. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
2. "Henry Marsh in conversation". Univ, University College, Oxford. January 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
3. "BBC launches two news programmes from the US", mediaweek.co.uk
4. "See How A Blog Post Brought Down A State Department Spokesman", Noah Davis, Mar. 15, 2011, businessinsider.com

External links

• Philippa Thomas on Twitter
• BBC Press Office biography
• Her blog