About

Leone Lakhani is a journalist with more than two decades of experience, writing, reporting, and producing stories across television and digital media, mainly at CNN International and BBC World.

She caught the journalism bug in her final year in college. In between her studies, she worked part-time, writing for local magazines to see if she really liked “the craft”. She was soon able to “craft” an exemplary cup of coffee for her editorial bosses and spent her weekends learning the art of stuffing envelopes. Many cups of coffee later, she eventually moved into the world of broadcast television, starting at BBC World and then CNN International.

As a Senior Producer she covered world events like the Israel-Lebanon War from Gaza, the mammoth task of the Hajj in Saudi Arabia and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

As a CNN correspondent, she has extensive experience in the Middle East covering the top news and business stories: everything from the Arab Spring and the death of Osama Bin Laden to OPEC and nuclear energy in the Gulf. She also reports for TRT World, on the US response on stories like the Israel-Gaza War.

With an avid interest in art and sports, she has interviewed the likes of Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible IV, John Travolta on his life as a pilot, and stars like Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer. She was also a host for the monthly culture show CNN Inside the Middle East.

In addition to her TV work, she has created and hosted content, including podcasts, for the digital news platform The Cipher Brief, which covers the US national security space. She’s interviewed the likes of David Miliband, Amb Dennis Ross and John Nixon, the first CIA analyst to interrogate Saddam Hussein.

She is now mainly in Washington DC, covering stories like the US elections, Covid response and BLM protests, among others.

She spends her time moderating panels and contributing to a range of programs and platforms including Matter of Fact, Hearst Media’s nationally-syndicated weekly TV show, hosted by Soledad O’Brien.

Leone has the rare ability to tell great stories from start to finish; from building the vision to executing and producing content for multimedia platforms.