Nina Hossain

Nina Hossain (born 1973) is a British journalist, presenter and newsreader, of Asian descent. She is one of the few British Asian newsreaders, mainly notable for being a presenter for BBC London and ITV News.

Nina Hossain was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England in 1973. She is of mixed Bengali and English parentage. Her father was, Dr Tabarek Hossain (1935 - 2002), originally from Bangladesh, who migrated to Britain in the 1960s, was a psychiatrist who specialised in alcoholism, he set up the Kirklees Alcohol Advisory Service in 1973 at the town centre, and was the founder and president of Concern For Mental Health in West Yorkshire. Her father married a English nurse, Pamela from Nottingham. Of her Bengali parentage, she states that she has never visited Bangladesh, does not speak Bengali and does not cook curry, and that while her father never discussed religion, Hossain and her younger sister Rezina "were nominally Muslim".

Hossain currently lives in the East Midlands, previously Thornton Heath, South London. Hossain is divorced from her former husband of eight years, Sky News editor Craig O'Hara. Hossain has been in a relationship with her current partner, and editor of ITV's London Tonight regional news programme, Stuart Thomas since the Spring of 2005, and together they have two children.

In 2004, she appeared in the film Trauma which starred Colin Firth.

Hossain's ambitions to be a journalist began at an early age. She has a degree from the University of Durham, (St Cuthbert's Society). In 2004, she joined ITV News as a relief presenter. She had previously worked as a relief presenter for BBC London News and for ITV Border on both sides of the camera. Because of the clarity of her pronunciation, Hossain was chosen as the word pronouncer for Series 1 of Hard Spell, a BBC One spelling competition for children. She reprised this role in the one-off episode of spin-off Star Spell (similar to Hard Spell, but with celebrities instead of chldren), but when Star Spell became a full series, she had joined ITV and so was replaced by BBC newscaster Mishal Husain, who continued this role through the second series of Hard Spell.

From 2004 to 2006, Hossain could also be seen as a relief presenter for ITV London's London Tonight programme - whilst being a relief presenter on various ITV News programmes to present.