Jonathan Samuels has broadcast around the world for Sky News, the BBC and Channel 5 news, reporting on everything from wars and natural disasters to royal tours and celebrity shenanigans.
Jonathan wanted to be a broadcaster since he was a geeky kid, dressing up as a newsreader and making his sister operate a TV camera made out of cereal boxes.
Four decades on he is now a full time Sky News presenter.
As a student Jonathan made a nuisance of himself on hospital radio and local radio, trying to persuade station bosses to let him on the air.
After studying at Loughborough University Jonathan began his career as a researcher on the Emmy award winning Channel 4 children's programme 'Wise Up', before studying journalism and joining a BBC regional training scheme.
At BBC Radio Cornwall he first learned about the horrors of the 3.30am alarm call when he read the early morning news bulletins. Jonathan slowly headed up the country via Radio Devon and BBC Spotlight based in Plymouth, where he was first introduced to the wonders of make-up and hair gel as he began reporting and presenting on TV.
Jonathan then joined BBC Look East before finally getting to London as a reporter for Sky News and then Chief Correspondent for Channel 5 news.
Jonathan has presented and reported breaking news in the UK and around the world from elections in the US and conflicts in the Middle-East to Brexit, Covid-19 and the death of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles’ Coronation.
Jonathan has got his boots dirty around the world, reporting from war zones and natural disasters. In Iraq he interviewed British sailors working in the waters close to Iran, days later those same sailors were captured by the Iranian authorities creating worldwide headlines.
Jonathan has reported from Israel on the conflicts with Gaza and Lebanon and sneaked into Zimbabwe undercover to report on the 2008 elections.
He covered the devastating floods in Pakistan and more recently in Queensland, Australia as well as the earthquake and Tsunami which ripped through Japan in March 2011.
Other stories have taken Jonathan to Beijing to report on the missing plane MH370, Chile, to watch the safe rescue of the trapped miners stuck underground for more than two months, LA for the death of Michael Jackson, and New York’s Ground Zero following the shooting of Osama Bin Laden. He's covered terror attacks in Tunisia, Turkey and Brussels and the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
More recently Jonathan broadcast from Rome when Italy became the first country to go into Covid lockdown. He presented coverage on location during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee and funeral, and was live in Windsor following the Coronation of King Charles. He has also anchored hours of rolling coverage during the Ukraine and Israel/Gaza conflicts.
Jonathan lives in London with his wife and 2 young children who so far have shown no desire to make TV cameras out of cereal boxes...