Matt Frei

Matt Frei presents Americana, Radio 4's insider's guide to the people and the ideas shaping the United States today.

Matt was born in Essen Germany and moved to London when his father, a foreign correspondent for a German broadcaster, was posted to the city.

He was educated at Westminster School and Oxford, where he read History and Spanish. After graduating he joined the BBC German Service, where he began broadcasting theatre and opera reviews to the other side of the Iron Curtain. From there, he went on to report for BBC radio as a freelance correspondent in Jerusalem and returned to Germany the day the Berlin Wall fell and stayed until the country was reunited.

Matt was then posted to Rome and covered the Balkan Wars, the isolation of Libya, and the collapse of Italy's rigid post-war politics. While there he wrote his first book, Italy, the Unfinished Revolution.

He then moved to Hong Kong where he reported on the last outpost of the British Empire and the Asian financial crisis.

From there he was off to Washington where he arrived in the summer of 2002 to cover the first anniversary of 9/11 and a presidency shaped by that day.

In 2007 Matt switched from being a correspondent to anchoring World News America, the BBC's nightly news programme for the US - an attempt to explain the world to America and America to the world, both of which are equally challenging.

In 2008 he published Only in America, his wry account of the Bush, years and has written numerous articles for the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Newsweek and other publications.

Matt Frei lives in Washington DC with his wife Penny, an artist, and their four children.