Biographies

Presenter, BBC News and BBC World News

Karin Giannone is a presenter for BBC News and BBC World News. Karin fronts the BBC's overnight coverage and the BBC World News Today programme from Thursday until Saturday, and she can also be seen at a range of other times across both channels.

Karin's involvement in news and current affairs began during her undergraduate days while studying at Cambridge University where she edited the university's student newspaper, Varsity.

After graduating from Newnham College, Cambridge with a first class honours degree in Modern Languages, Karin chose a career in journalism. Her first job in TV news came when Anglia Television in Norwich hired her as a graduate news trainee in 1997, where she became a producer, then a reporter covering the East of England.

Between 1999 and 2000, Karin spent a season in the sporting world, reporting for Channel 4's Football Italia. She shuttled between London and Rome, before returning to Anglia as a news reporter and presenter.

During the run-up to the Iraq war, Karin presented with Sky News in London, where she worked until 2004.

In 2005, Karin joined the BBC and her debut was a dramatic one. The Iraqi elections unfolded during her very first shift and it was a taste of things to come.

During her time at the BBC she has anchored rolling coverage of many global events. Her longest unbroken stint on-air was for six hours following the death of Pope John Paul II, and she has been in the chair for major developing news stories such as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the Israel-Gaza crisis, and the terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

Karin's news career has also taken her overseas. In 2002, shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, Karin spent time with the armed forces and filmed a series of special reports for Anglia TV News.

In July/August 2008 she took a closer look at the culture and politics of America, presenting World News Today from the BBC's Washington DC bureau.

Karin was born in Johannesburg and moved to the UK when she was two years old. She is married with two children, and is expecting her third this October.

She loves scuba diving, travelling, and swimming in the sea off England's South coast. She speaks fluent Italian and French, and has studied German and Russian.