Martine Dennis

Early life

Martine Dennis was born on 29 January 1961 in London to Caribbean/Mauritian parents. She read English and American Studies from 1979-82 at Keele University in England and Dar es salaam.

Career

Martine began her broadcasting career as a graduate trainee at LBC/IRN in London in 1983. She specialised in parliamentary reporting, but also made radio documentaries, notably: Zimbabwe - Five Years after Independence. She also covered the 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held in Nassau in the Bahamas, interviewing, among others: Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Thatcher and Edward Seaga.

Later in 1985, she joined BBC World Service radio at the United Nations, in New York, covering the Iran–Iraq war and interviewing a number of world leaders.

In 1987 she became a presenter-producer for Focus on Africa, the BBC African Service, based at Bush House in London and in 1989 Martine became a presenter, reporter and producer at Sky News, London. She was an overnight news presenter until 1991 when she went to South Africa. In South Africa she freelanced for BBC World Service, covering South Africa's first democratic election.

In 1994 she became the presenter of Carte Blanche, South Africa's top weekly current affairs feature programme. In 1995, Martine returned to London to work on current affairs programmes, including Correspondent.

In 2014 Martine left the BBC to go to Al Jazeera after 20 years at the corporation.

On her return from South Africa in 1995, Martine worked briefly as a correspondent for BBC1’s Here and Now weekly programme. Later she became a main presenter of BBC World News. She presented the first edition of The World Today with Tanya Beckett when it was launched in September 2001. She remained the main presenter of The World Today (BBC News at 0500 GMT) until she left the BBC in 2014. She also presented BBC World News on various time slots.

On 19 February 2014 Martine began her new role at Al Jazeera English. She presents Inside Story, in addition to anchoring regular news bulletins. She has also had special assignments, such as interviewing Masoud Barzani about Kurdish independence.

Personal life

Martine Dennis is a mother of two children and presently lives in Qatar.