Anita Rani

Presentation address by Professor Beth Johnson:

Executive Dean,

The University of Leeds has conferred honorary degrees upon outstanding individuals whose achievements are distinguished by excellence and originality. Anita Rani is no exception, changing the face of British Television.

A Royal Television Society Award winning broadcaster with a career spanning nearly 20 years, Anita Rani grew up in Bradford, hosting her own radio show on Sunrise Radio at the age of 14. She studied Broadcasting at the University of Leeds and has gone on to present on some of the highest profile shows in the UK, including BBC One’s Country File, Watchdog, The One Show and Cricket AM on Sky Sports.

She has also made a series of explorative documentaries, on diverse subjects such as Bollywood, India’s Partition of 1947, Plastics and Refugees and the social history series Saved by a Stranger.

Anita also presented Beneath The Crown, a YouTube series for Netflix described as the ultimate viewing companion to the hit show, The Crown.

Anita joined the BBC’s Asian Network in 2005, has presented on Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio Two, and in 2021 became the main presenter on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. 

Anita led a delegation to the House of Commons to call on MPs to create an annual day of commemoration for Partition in recognition of its huge impact on south Asia at the time and its subsequent effect on the generations who followed. In 2021 Anita was made a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador, and in 2023 was installed as Chancellor at the University of Bradford. 

Anita is also a writer, publishing her memoir The Right Sort of Girl in July 2021, and this year publishes her first novel, Baby Does a Runner.

Executive Dean, it is a great pleasure to welcome Anita back to Leeds, where she began her distinguished broadcast journey. I am proud to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Anita Rani.