Career
He is the primary news anchor at National Broadcasting Company-owned KNTV in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mathai anchors the 5pm, 6pm and 11pm newscasts for National Broadcasting Company Bay Area KNTV. He anchors the nightly newscasts for KNTV as well as hosts the series The Interview. The series sets Mathai with newsmakers such as California Attorney General Kamala Harris, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and General Colin Powell.
In 2013, Mathai conducted exclusive interviews with John McAfee about his life and his legal troubles including the death and suspected murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull in Belize.
Mathai led the KNTV coverage of the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport. He was on the air for seven consecutive hours and was the first journalist to interview a survivor of the crash.
Prior to his News career, Mathai was a sportscaster for National Broadcasting Company Bay Area (1998-2010). In 1995 he became the first Indian sportscaster for a network affiliate in the United States when he began sportscasting for KYMA. He worked for National Broadcasting Company affiliates KNSD in San Diego, California, KYMA in Yuma, Arizona, and KSEE in Fresno, California before arriving at KNTV in 1998.
He has reported on-location from the Olympics from London, Vancouver, Turin, Athens, and Salt Lake City.
He was also an Olympic torch bearer in 1996, 2002, and 2008. Mathai co-hosted Sports Sunday along with Jerry Rice, Nnamdi Asomugha, Jeff Garcia and Ken Norton, Junior. He was formerly part of the National Broadcasting Company broadcast team for the San Francisco Giants along with Jon Miller and Mike Krukow.
Mathai was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
He lived in Mumbai until age 7 when he moved Palo Alto, California. Mathai is the cousin of best-selling authors Abraham Verghese and Jeet Thayil.
He is also the nephew of Thomas Kailath, noted Stanford Professor. Mathai attended Los Altos High School and San Diego State University where he graduated with a degree in journalism and political science in 1993.
Prior to his career as a broadcaster, Mathai was a public relations assistant with the San Diego Chargers.
He was also part of the Super Bowl staff for the National Football League in 1993 and 1994.
