Martine Dennis

Martine Dennis is a British news anchor, known for presenting BBC World News. On 19 February 2014 she began work at Al Jazeera English. Martine Dennis was born on 29 January 1961 in London to Caribbean/Mauritian parents. She read English and American Studies from 1979-82 at Keele University in England and Dar es salaam. Martine started her broadcasting career as a graduate trainee at LBC/IRN in London in 1983.There she did parliamentary reporting and made radio documentaries notably Zimbabwe - Five Years after Independence documentary.Also she covered the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Nassau, the Bahamas in 1985 interviewing Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Thatcher and Edward Seaga. Later she joined BBC World Service Radio at the United Nations, New York in 1985, covering the Iran–Iraq war and interviewing many world leaders. In 1987 she became a presenter-producer for Focus on Africa, the BBC African Service, based at Bush House in London and in 1989 Martine became a presenter, reporter and producer at Sky News, London. She was an overnight news presenter until 1991 when she went to South Africa. In South Africa she freelanced for BBC World Service, covering South Africa's first democratic election. In 1994 she became the presenter of Carte Blanche, South Africa's top weekly current affairs feature programme. In 1995, Martine returned to London to work on current affairs programmes, including Correspondent. In 2014 Martine left the BBC to go to Al Jazeera after 20 years at the corporation. When Martine Dennis came back from South Africa in 1995, she worked briefly as a correspondent for BBC1’s Here and Now weekly programme. Later she became a main presenter of BBC World News. She presented the first edition of The World Today with Tanya Beckett when it was launched in September 2001. She remained the main presenter of The World Today (BBC News at 0500 GMT) until she left the BBC in 2014. She also presented BBC World News on various time slots. In 2014 Martine left the BBC after 20 years at the corporation to start her new role at Al Jazeera English. After joining Al Jazeera English, Martine has worked on new assignments such as interviewing Masoud Barzani about Kurdish independence and presenting Inside Story in addition to presenting regular news bulletins.