Amna Nawaz

Co-Anchor @ PBS NewsHour

Amna Nawaz | Author | PBS NewsHour

Amna Nawaz, Co-Anchor, PBS NewsHour

Amna Nawaz serves as co-anchor of PBS NewsHour. Prior to joining PBS NewsHour in
April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s livestream coverage of the 2016 presidential election.

Before that, she served as a foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform, built in 2014, to elevate stories from America’s fastest-growing and most diverse population. At the NewsHour, Nawaz has reported from the White House, across the country, and around the world on a range of topics including politics, immigration, foreign affairs, education, gun violence, criminal justice reform, the climate, culture, and sports.


Throughout her career, she has covered major events such as the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol; the mass
shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; the elections and inaugurations of President Joe Biden,
President Donald J. Trump, and President Barack Obama; Hurricane Katrina; the 2010 Haiti earthquake; the U.S.
war in Afghanistan; and the September 11th attacks. Nawaz has interviewed multiple heads of state and

international leaders including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. She has interviewed government officials including Acting

DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, ICE Director Mark Morgan, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and VA Secretary Denis

McDonough. She has interviewed a variety of newsmakers including acclaimed director Ava Duvernay, actor Riz
Ahmed, WNBA star Sue Bird, and country singer Reba McEntire.

On January 6, 2021, Nawaz reported live for several hours from outside the U.S. Capitol building as it was under
attack, part of a NewsHour team honored with a Peabody Award for its coverage. Nawaz previously won a Peabody for her documentary work on 2019’s “The Plastic Problem,” examining global plastic pollution and efforts to address it. Her other documentaries include “Raising the Future,” a 2021 documentary on America’s childcare crisis; and 2022’s “Life After Lockup,” which followed the lives of four formerly-incarcerated people to track the challenges of re-entry after prison.

She is the first-generation American daughter of Pakistani parents, born and raised in Virginia. Nawaz earned a
bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she captained the varsity field hockey team and
studied abroad at the University of Zimbabwe. She later earned her master’s degree from the London School of
Economics.