Chris Reason

Career

Reason began his career in newspapers in 1986 - first at The Redland Times then the daily metro newspaper The Sun in Brisbane. In 1989 he was signed by the Nine Network as a reporter for their News Bureau on the Gold Coast.

A year later, he moved to the Seven Network in Brisbane as Crime Reporter. In 1992, he was appointed to Seven's London Bureau, the youngest correspondent in the network's history, and a year later he was appointed Bureau Chief. After 4 years in the Bureau, he returned to Seven's Sydney Newsroom as a Senior Network Reporter.

In 2002, he was announced as co-host of the re-launched national breakfast program Sunrise alongside Melissa Doyle. But in September, Reason was diagnosed with cancer and forced to retire from the program while he underwent six months of chemotherapy, surgery and recovery care. He was replaced by David Koch. The cancer was an abdominal metastasis of the testicular cancer he had fought four years earlier. Reason had missed a critical health check-up in 2001 while covering the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, and he says it almost cost him his life. In multiple interviews since, he has warned young men to never miss a health check-up.

In 2003, after his recovery, Reason had multiple roles - first as presenter of Seven Morning News, then in 2004, presenter of Sunday Sunrise. In 2005, he was named co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Lisa Wilkinson, but was later replaced by Deal or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe. Reason returned to full-time reporting as Senior Network Correspondent.

While reporting for Seven News, Reason covered the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand and then Banda Aceh; the Fukushima nuclear disaster; Barack Obama's election; Nelson Mandela's funeral; the September 11 attacks; the 7/7 London terror attacks; the East Timor independence transition in 1999; Princess Diana's funeral; Schapelle Corby's sentencing; the Hong Kong handover; the Oscar Pistorius trial; the Kobe earthquake; the 2000 Fiji Coup; the 1997 Thredbo landslide; the Beaconsfield mine disaster and Prince William and Catherine's wedding. He has covered multiple Federal and State elections and eight Olympic Games.

In 2015 he won the Graham Perkin Award for his coverage of the Lindt Cafe siege. He has won a Walkley Award and two Logie Awards for News Reporting.

Reason is a back-up presenter for most of the Seven News programs, including Seven Morning News, Seven Afternoon News and Seven News Sydney. In November 2016, he filled in for regular presenter David Koch on Sunrise.

Personal life

Reason was born on 1 October 1965. His father died from brain cancer in 2006. He attended Villanova College in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo and the University of Queensland (BA). Reason married journalist Kathryn Robinson in 2005. They became parents to twins, Sam and Lucy, in August 2007.