Mobeen Azhar

Mobeen Azhar is a British journalist, radio and television presenter and filmmaker.[1] He produces investigative reports and films for the BBC exploring themes related to politics, true crime, extremism, counter terrorism and sexuality. He has presented and produced international documentaries for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three and is a regular BBC Asian Network presenter.[2]

In 2017, he won a BAFTA for producing the BBC series Muslims Like Us[3] and in 2020, he won a Royal Television Society Award for presenting BBC documentary Hometown: A Killing.[4] In 2019, Azhar became a presenter on new BBC Three show Plastic Surgery Undressed.[5]

Early life and education

Azhar was born in 1980 and raised in Huddersfield in Yorkshire and is of British Asian background. His father was a bus driver and a shop keeper[6] who encouraged Azhar to go to university.[7]

At university, Azhar gained a law degree and then returned to study broadcast journalism after a gap year.[8]

Career

In 2012, Azhar was part of a team reporting from Waziristan in Pakistan on US drone strikes on the Afghan border for a BBC Panorama special, The Secret Drone War.[9][10]

In August 2013, he investigated gay life in urban Pakistan for Assignment: Inside Gay Pakistan on the BBC World Service and on BBC Radio 4.[11]

Azhar has written about and reported extensively on musician Prince. In 2015, he presented BBC documentary Hunting for Prince’s Vault[12][13] and in September 2016, Azhar's debut book Prince Stories from the Purple Underground: 1958-2016 was published by Welbeck Publishing.[14][15]

In 2016, Azhar joined a police team of "Taliban Hunters" in Karachi, Pakistan, as part of documentary reporting for BBC Panorama.[16] During filming he was shot at by the Taliban.[17]

In February 2016, Azhar presented the BBC Three documentary Webcam Boys, spending a couple of months with men who make money from performing online sex shows.[18]

In 2019, Azhar presented BBC documentaries The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On,[19] A Black and White Killing: The Case that Shook America[20] and The Best Pakistani Transgender Retirement Home.[21]

In 2019, Azhar also presented six-part BBC documentary series Hometown: A Killing, reporting on the police shooting of Yassar Yaqub in Huddersfield in 2017.[22][23] Yasser Yaqub's father Mohammed Yaqub, who featured in the series, claimed Azhar had attempted to "smear" his son's name.[24] Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman also criticized the programme, claiming it depicted the town as "a hotbed of violent crime".[25] The docu-series went on to win several awards.[26][27][28]

During the same year, Azhar became a presenter on BBC Three show Plastic Surgery Undressed, alongside Vogue Williams.[29]

In May 2021, Azhar presented BBC Two documentary The Battle For Britney: Fans, Cash, And A Conservatorship, reporting from California and Louisiana on the #FreeBritney movement, who claim music star Britney Spears is being "kept a virtual prisoner in her own home" through a conservatorship managed by her father.[30][31][32] Spears was reported to have criticized the documentary, describing it as "hypocritical".[33]

Awards

In 2020, Azhar won the Royal Television Society 'Presenter of the Year' award for Hometown: A Killing.[34] In the same year, he also won 'Best Presenter' at the Grierson Awards for the same documentary series.[35]

In May 2017, he won a BAFTA award for his work as producer on BBC series Muslims Like Us.[36]

Azhar has won an Amnesty International award for Panorama: The Secret Drone War.[37]

Personal life

Azhar is openly gay;[38] and is a Muslim.[39] He is an avid fan of musician Prince and horror films.[40][41][42]

References
  1. "Journalism Masterclass with Mobeen Azhar". Royal Television Society. 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  2. "BBC Asian Network - Group Chat - Mobeen Azhar". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  3. "Reality & Constructed Factual - MUSLIMS LIKE US". www.bafta.org. 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  4. "Winners of the RTS Programme Awards 2020 announced". Royal Television Society. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  5. "Vogue Williams and Mobeen Azhar present BBC Three's Plastic Surgery Undressed". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  6. "BBC Asian Network - Mobeen Azhar - Mobeen Azhar". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  7. "BBC Asian Network - Mobeen Azhar - Mobeen Azhar". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  8. "Behind the lens: Mobeen Azhar". BBC Three. 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  9. "BBC One - Panorama, the Secret Drone War". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  10. "Behind the lens: Mobeen Azhar". BBC Three. 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  11. "Assignment: Inside Gay Pakistan". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  12. www.bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02m3sfd#:~:text=Hunting%20for%20Prince%27s%20Vault,-The%20Documentary&text=Mobeen%20Azhar%20travels%20to%20Minneapolis,tracks%20from%20Prince%27s%20legendary%20vault. Retrieved 2021-05-04. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. "Hunting for Prince's vault". BBC News. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  14. Azhar, Mobeen (2016-04-22). "'Hunting for Prince's Vault' Creator on Music Yet to Come". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  15. "Prince: Stories from the Purple Underground by Mobeen Azhar | Waterstones". www.waterstones.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  16. "BBC One - Panorama, the Taliban Hunters". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  17. "BBC Asian Network - Mobeen Azhar - 5 Things You Need to Know About Mobeen!". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  18. "BBC Three - Webcam Boys". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  19. "The week in TV: The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On; This Time With Alan Partridge and more". The Guardian. 2019-03-03. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  20. "A Black and White Killing: The Case That Shook America - S1 - Episode 1". Radio Times. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  21. Images Staff (2019-06-26). "This documentary takes us inside Pakistan's retirement home for trans people". Images. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  22. "Hometown: A Killing". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  23. Hometown: A Killing, retrieved 2021-05-04
  24. Sutcliffe, Robert (2019-06-23). "Yassar's dad's fury over BBC documentary which 'smears' him as drug dealer". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  25. Ankers, Wayne (2019-06-27). "MP Barry Sheerman slams BBC's Hometown for hotbed of violence portrayal". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  26. Finnegan, Stephanie (2021-03-06). "Where the people from Hometown are now - from jail time to fleeing the UK". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  27. "Winners of the RTS Programme Awards 2020 announced". Royal Television Society. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  28. televisual.com (2020-11-13). "2020 Grierson Award winners announced". Televisual. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  29. Deen, Sarah (1 November 2019). "BBC Three announces cosmetic surgery show Plastic Surgery Undressed". Metro UK.
  30. "The Battle for Britney: Fans, Cash and a Conservatorship release date". Radio Times. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  31. "Mobeen Azhar reveals what makes BBC's Battle for Britney documentary different: 'You don't have this level of depth in the other docs I've seen'". Radio Times. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  32. Griffin, Louise (2021-05-01). "The Battle For Britney: Everything we learned from Britney Spears documentary". Metro. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  33. "Britney Spears hits out at 'hypocritical' BBC documentary". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  34. "Winners of the RTS Programme Awards 2020 announced". Royal Television Society. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  35. televisual.com (2020-11-13). "2020 Grierson Award winners announced". Televisual. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  36. "Muslims Like Us - Winners' acceptance speech, Reality and Constructed Factual, Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards in 2017". www.bafta.org. 2017-05-14. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  37. "Who is Mobeen Azhar? The Award-Winning Documentarian Returns Home For His New BBC3 Show". Bustle. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  38. "30 LGBT people, places and things you need to know: Mobeen Azhar". Attitude.co.uk. 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  39. Azhar, Mobeen (2016-02-01), Baz The Lost Muslim viewing copy_Google_Generic, retrieved 2021-05-04
  40. "How Prince changed one BBC reporter's life forever". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  41. "BBC Asian Network - Mobeen Azhar - 5 Things You Need to Know About Mobeen!". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  42. Azhar, Mobeen. "Is Prince's Sign O' The Times the greatest album of all time?". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
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