James Coomarasamy

British presenter

James Coomarasamy

Born	London, England
Education	University of Cambridge
Employer	BBC
Known for	News broadcaster
Partner	Nanette van der Laan^[1]

James Coomarasamy is a British presenter of the BBC Radio 4 evening programme The World Tonight and the flagship Newshour programme on the BBC World Service.

Before joining Newshour in 2010, Coomarasamy spent a year presenting the now defunct programme Europe Today. Before becoming a presenter (announcer) he had been a BBC correspondent in Warsaw, followed by Paris, then Washington, D.C.

Early life

Coomarasamy was born in London to parents of English and Sri Lankan ancestry.^{[citation needed]} He was privately educated at Christ's Hospital School, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), near Horsham, West Sussex, followed by the University of Cambridge, where he studied modern and medieval languages. He is fluent in French and Russian, and he speaks some Polish.^[2]

Career

Coomarasamy has worked primarily for the BBC:^[3]

1991. Production assistant in the BBC Moscow bureau, after which he freelanced in Moscow as a reporter-producer
Producer for the BBC World in London
December 1994. Returned to Moscow as the bureau's bi-media producer, covering major stories such as the war in Chechnya
November 1997. In Warsaw as the BBC correspondent covering events in Poland, the Baltics and Ukraine
From 1999 to 2003. The BBC's Paris reporter, covering for both radio and television
From February 2005. Correspondent in Washington, D.C., for North America
2009. Presented Europe Today for the BBC World Service
2010. Joined the presentation team for Newshour on the BBC World Service

Personal life

Coomarasamy is married to Nanette van der Laan. They have two children: Maya and Finn.^[4]

References

^ "James Coomarasamy". Twitter. 14 February 2015.
^ "Profile". BBC World Service.
^ "Profile". BBC TV news. Archived from the original on 28 October 2006.
^ Coomarasamy, James (27 April 2003). "Au revoir, Parisian parenthood". BBC News.

External links

Twitter

BBC World Service

Programmes	BBC OS The Bottom Line Business Daily The Forum From Our Own Correspondent HARDtalk Newsday Newshour Outlook Reith Lectures Science in Action Sportsworld Stumped World Book Club
Former programmes	A History of the World in 100 Objects Caribbean Voices Culture Shock Digital Planet Europe Today Everywoman Front Line Family Have Your Say Pop Club Radio Newsreel The Real Story The Strand Westway The Word World Briefing World Have Your Say The World Today World Update
Language services	Arabic Bangla Hausa Nepali Pashto Persian Punjabi Russian Spanish Somali Ukrainian Urdu
Closed services	Albanian Polish Romanian
Miscellaneous	BBC Media Action Bush House Current newsreaders and reporters Former newsreaders and journalists Gaza Daily Greenwich Time Signal John Tusa Lillibullero London Calling Prince of Denmark's March Radio Belgique Radio Londra Radio Londres Radio Oranje The World
Related articles	BBC Learning English BBC Monitoring BBC News BBC News Arabic BBC Persian Television BBC Radio 4 BBC World News BBC World Service Television
Transmitter sites	Ascension Island British East Mediterranean Relay Station Orfordness Skelton Woofferton