Page 68 - Powerlist 2020

Reni Eddo-Lodge
Media, Publishing & Entertainment Journalist, Author

Reni was born and raised in London by her Nigerian mother,
and attended St Anne’s Catholic High School in Enfield.
She studied English Literature at the University of Central
Lancashire, graduating in 2011. While at university, she
became involved in feminist activism and the 2010 student
protest movement.
She was president of the university’s students’ union until
2012, and was an elected member of the National Executive
Council of the National Union of Students from 2012 to 2013.
She has gone on to be an award-winning journalist,
author and podcaster.
Her debut non-fiction book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to
White People About Race, was published in the summer of
2017 to critical acclaim.
A Sunday Times bestseller, it won the 2018 Jhalak Prize
and has been shortlisted for a British Book Award. The
book earned a spot on the longlist for the prestigious Baillie
Gifford Prize for non-fiction, and was shortlisted for the
Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. It was voted non-fiction
book of the year for 2017 by booksellers at both Foyles and
Blackwells and selected by actress Emma Watson as an Our
Reggie Yates Shared Shelf book club read in January 2017.
Broadcaster The book also earned Reni a Bold Moves Award from
Women in the Creative Industries.
In January 2018, Reni was chosen as one of seven
Reggie Yates has effortlessly made the leap from host of prominent British women to be photographed for British
Top of the Pops and the Radio 1 Chart Show to a hugely Vogue, to mark the centenary of British women winning the
popular and critically-acclaimed presenter of hard-hitting right to vote.
and thought-provoking documentaries. Her podcast, About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge, premiered
In March 2018, his BBC Two documentary Grenfell Tower’s in March 2018.
Hidden Victims revealed the untold stories of some of the
victims caught up in the devastating fire.
In 2016, Reggie was awarded Best Presenter for the
critically-acclaimed Extreme Russia at the Royal Television
Society Awards, Best Factual Programme at the Edinburgh
TV Festival, and Best Multi-Channel Programme at the
Broadcast Awards. His films for the BBC3 Extreme series are
all available to a worldwide audience on Netflix.
In 2017, Reggie fronted a second series of The Insider
for the BBC, which saw him spending a week on a toxic
waste dump in Ghana, a week in the largest refugee camp in
Iraq and a week working as a guard at Guildford County Jail
in North Carolina.
In 2017, Reggie also released his debut book Unseen: My
Journey, taking readers behind the scenes of his transition
from TV presenter to documentary maker.
He is a talented screenwriter, his first short, Patriarch,
airing on Channel 4 as part of their Random Acts season
and another, Shelter, airing on BBC iPlayer last September.
His second short film, Date Night, starring Oscar nominee
Daniel Kaluuya, won Best UK Short at the London
Independent Film Festival.
Most recently Reggie has filmed brand new documentaries
for BBC Two, one hour exploring what it means to be black
in Hollywood right now and three hours on modern China.
Reggie’s charity work with UNICEF and the Commonwealth
Games has taken him to Jamaica to learn about the sport and
education work UNICEF is doing there.
He is also a patron of Catch 22, a UK charity that helps
people in tough situations to turn their lives around.

68 Powerlist 2020