INTERCULTURAL

LEADERS

Athar Ahmad
Documentary Maker and Journalist, BBC

Fellowship Programme

Athar is a multi-award winning reporter and documentary maker for the BBC. His work focuses on exploring the nuances and intricacies of minority communities and groups, providing a platform for voices and ideas often ignored by the mainstream media. Athar’s work is renowned for its robust, analytical yet sensitive deconstruction of often complicated issues, from an undercover investigation into the sexual exploitation of divorced Muslim women in the UK, to his award winning documentary on mental health conditions faced by men with body image issues. Athar regularly appears across international BBC news programmes, providing analysis and insight on television, radio and online. He has presented feature length documentaries for the BBC World Service and has made films for a number of the BBC’s flagship news programmes. Athar’s tenaciousness in delivering original forms of journalism has seen him recognized as a key ethnic minority voice within the industry, leading to a nomination for Specialist Journalist of the year at the 2017 British Journalism Awards, seen as the UK’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize. Athar also has a MA in Broadcast Journalism from City University, London.