Sonali Shah
Part of the BBC presentation team for the London Olympics 2012, Sonali also co-presents British Olympic Dreams - a monthly BBC One show following Britain’s finest athletes in their quest to reach London 2012. Her warmth, charm and versatility has resulted in her covering a number of the BBC’s marquee events – the Cricket World Cup, the Boat Race, the London Marathon, the Epsom Derby, the Royal Wedding & Wimbledon. All this was on top of her day job – the BAFTA award-winning Newsround which she presented for five years.
In October 2010, she spent a month in Delhi as one of BBC Sport’s presenters at the Commonwealth Games. Adept at explaining a complex subject to a non-specialist audience, in November she went to Afghanistan to film two Newsround Specials, called ‘Growing up in a Warzone’ and ‘The Children of Kabul’. One of these films prompted quite a debate in the media because it included NATO’s leading civilian representative in the Afghan capital telling Sonali ‘children in Kabul are safer than those in London and Glasgow’. The two documentaries aired on BBC One, the BBC News Channel and BBC World.
In early 2010, Sonali travelled to Haiti to meet survivors of the earthquake two months on from the disaster, resulting in a week of special reports for Newsround. In 2008, she spent a month in China, reporting on the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake and presenting Newsround and Sportsround from the Beijing Olympic Games. Sonali credits these Games for sparking her passion for covering big sporting events. Since then, she has had the opportunity to interview some of the biggest names in sport such as Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, David Beckham and Maria Sharapova. Sonali thrives in the challenge of showing the audience something they’ve never seen before. This year, she particularly enjoyed getting Andy Murray to take on his brother Jamie in an impromptu spelling bee!
Aiming for a career in medicine in her teens, Sonali got the presenting bug while volunteering at her local hospital radio station during her A level years. After university, she began her professional broadcasting career in radio, in early 2002, she joined the BBC World Service as a producer, but quickly established herself as a presenter of World Business Report and The World Today. In 2003, Sonali was asked to move to Radio 5 live to help launch Jeff Randall’s Weekend Business, which went on to win a Sony Radio award. As well as reporting for Weekend Business, Sonali became a regular business presenter on the network, fronting Wake Up to Money and 5 live Money on Breakfast, Simon Mayo and Drive.
Sonali’s popularity within CBBC has seen her become a regular guest in the channel’s presentation studio, on the very successful Sam and Mark’s Tmi Friday, and MOTD Kickabout, which she often hosts. She is also a face of Comic Relief, Sport Relief and Children in Need.
Away from the camera, Sonali is a keen traveller. Her favourite trips include gorilla trekking in Uganda, white water rafting down the Nile, surfing in Brazil and horseback safari in South Africa. She is also a trained dancer, having spent more than 10 years studying Indian classical, Indian folk and Streetdance. In 2010, Sonali was asked to join the panel of judges to find the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. A Princes Trust Ambassador, Sonali also enjoys hosting live audience events – her most recent was a fundraising event at London’s Royal Albert Hall for Barnardo’s.
