Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton is a highly accomplished, versatile journalist and a rising star of the BBC’s next generation of exciting talent.
From being tear-gassed in Bethlehem and broadcasting from the frontline in Basra to figure-heading the BBC's coverage of the Oscars and the Glastonbury festival, Kate is as much at home in the war zones of the Middle East and Africa as she is rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles.
In the process she has established herself as the new face of BBC news.
Having already enjoyed huge success on BBC Breakfast and BBC News 24, this year she launched the Corporation’s flagship 8pm bulletin and has presented the One O'Clock News since February.
Kate has become a mainstay reporter for Panorama and presented the prime time BBC One feature "Ultimate Wild Water"; winning huge acclaim for overcoming her fear of open water to tackle some of Britain’s most notorious waters by kayak.
Most recently, Kate tackled the Top Gear race track in extremely wet conditions and made a guest appearance on Have I Got News For You.
This year Kate introduced live coverage to celebrate 90 years of the Royal Air Force and provided the commentary for the Windsor Tattoo in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.
Having previously worked as a corporate financier in the city, Kate made the move into journalism and won the BT Journalist of the Year Award in 1998.
Kate has developed a reputation for being warm, engaging and eclectic whilst also being hugely focused and highly professional.
It is this integrity and broad experience in both business and journalism that has enabled her to interview major political, military and show business figures, whilst also chairing conferences and debates for some of Britain’s biggest organisations such as BT, Royal Bank of Scotland, KPMG, The Royal Navy and Transport for London.
Kate graduated from the University of Durham with a BSc in Psychology. Before that she studied Arabic and Middle Eastern history for a year, fuelled by an interest in Middle East politics. This interest developed following a stay on a Kibbutz in Israel and travels with Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt.
Kate has been a keen traveller since her first expedition with Operation Raleigh (now Raleigh International) to Zimbabwe in 1990. She has subsequently travelled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East, most recently visiting Lesotho, Uganda and Oman. These experiences, immersing herself within hugely disparate cultures around the globe, have continued to prove the driving force for her reporting from some of the most troubled and beleaguered areas of the world.
Kate has been presenting Sunday mornings on 5live since Autumn 2009. The programme is a mix of breaking news, the agenda setting 10 o Clock Interview, where Kate gets to the heart of the people who have shaped Britain, and a look at the big questions behind next week's news agenda.