Pakistani American Amna Nawaz Named Co-Anchor of PBS NewsHour Along With Geoff Bennett

Pakistani American journalist Amna Nawaz has been named co-anchor of PBS NewsHour, along with Geoff Bennett, the television network announced today. Nawaz is currently the NewsHour chief correspondent, while Bennett is the PBS News Weekend anchor. The nightly newscast, co-anchored by Nawaz and Bennett, will launch on Jan. 2, 2023.

Nawaz joined NewsHour in 2018 and has since served as its primary substitute anchor. Last year, she was part of a NewsHour team honored with a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Jan. 6 attacks on Capitol Hill. 

In 2019, Nawaz moderated the sixth Democratic presidential primary debate on Dec.19 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, becoming the first Asian American and the first Muslim American to moderate a presidential debate.

She is the daughter of Shuja Nawaz, a former Pakistan Television (PTV) journalist and currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank. He is the author of “Crossed Swords” among other books.

She 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.

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Before joining PBS, she was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s live-stream coverage of the 2016 presidential election. Before that, she served as a foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She also serves as an NBC News and MSNBC political contributor.

She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform and began her journalism career at ABC News Nightline just weeks before the attacks of September 11, 2001. She’s an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics.

Commenting on the appointment, Nawaz said she’s “honored to be part of this mission, to work with colleagues I admire and adore, and to take on this new role alongside Geoff as we help write the next chapter in NewsHour’s story.” She continued: “Today is a day I never could’ve imagined when I began my journalism career years ago, or while growing up as a first-generation, Muslim, Pakistani-American. I’m grateful, humbled, and excited for what’s ahead.”