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Edinburgh TV Festival 2023
Speaker Profile Image

Emily Maitlis

Journalist and Broadcaster

Special Guest

Professional Bio

Award-winning journalist and broadcaster Emily Maitlis will deliver the The James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture as the Festival returns to an in-person event. 
  
Recognised as one of the most influential people in Britain, Maitlis has a storied career. Having covered elections in the US and UK for the BBC, she has also fronted Newsnight, becoming a stalwart of the public broadcaster’s news output and a trusted voice with the viewing public. 
  
She has interviewed Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton as well as each of the last six UK Prime Ministers among numerous other political leaders. In the world of culture and international affairs she has sat down with subjects including Mark Zuckerberg, Usain Bolt, Sheryl Sandberg, Marine le Pen, Emma Thompson. In a groundbreaking interview that defined the news and cultural narrative she spoke exclusively to Prince Andrew, as the royal talked publicly for the first time about his links to Jeffrey Epstein. 
  
Having departed the BBC and signed with Global, the next chapter of Maitlis’s career will build upon the success she enjoyed with the Americast podcast. She will once again team with Jon Sopel for a new project under the Global banner. 
  
Maitlis is also author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Airhead: An Exploration of the Imperfect Art of Making News, which is currently being adapted. She has also written for The Sunday Times and the Spectator as well as the Guardian, the Evening Standard and the New Statesman.