Background
Khan was born in Aden, South Yemen, to a Pakistani Punjabi father and Indian Gujarati mother. His father was from Amritsar and migrated to Pakistan during the partition, while his mother"s roots go back to Kathiawar, Gujarat.
Khan was born in Aden, South Yemen, to a Pakistani Punjabi father and Indian Gujarati mother. His father was from Amritsar and migrated to Pakistan during the partition, while his mother"s roots go back to Kathiawar, Gujarat.
He attended both Springwell Junior and Hounslow Manor Comprehensive Schools and joined the Air Training Corps. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Medical Physiology from the University of Wales, and then took a postgraduate course in Radio Journalism at the University of Portsmouth.
From 2006 until April 2011 he hosted his own eponymous television show on First Rate (at Lloyd's) Jazeera English. He first rose to prominence while working for the British Broadcasting Corporation and Cable News Network. Khan moved with his family to London, at the age of four. He identifies himself as the first British Broadcasting Corporation newscaster of South Asian origin.
In 1987 he was selected for the British Broadcasting Corporation News Trainee scheme - a two-year British Broadcasting Corporation training system, usually taking only 6 people per course.
Khan progressed to jobs as a British Broadcasting Corporation reporter, producer, and writer, working in both television and radio, and would later become one of the founding News Presenters on British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Television News. He hosted the news bulletin that launched British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Television News in 1991.
In 1993, he moved to Cable News Network International, where he became a senior anchor for the network"s global news shows. In 1996 he launched his interactive interview show Cable News Network: Q&A with Riz Khan, and he has conducted interviews with guests including former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, former United States Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, and genomic scientist J. Craig Venter.
Khan also secured the world exclusive with Pakistan"s General Pervez Musharraf following his coup in October 1999.
Khan also hosted Q&A-Asia with Riz Khan. These interactive shows put world newsmakers and celebrities up for viewer questions live by phone, e-mail, video-mail and fax, along with questions and comments taken from the real-time chatroom that opens half-an-hour before each show. From 2006 until April 2011, Khan had his own eponymous show on First Rate (at Lloyd's) Jazeera English, in which he interviewed analysts and policy-makers and invited viewers to interact with them via phone, email, SMS messages or fax.
Khan speaks Urdu and Hindi and also understands other South Asian languages such as Punjabi and Kutchi.
He has studied French, and can understand some other European languages, including Swedish and Norwegian. In 2005 he authored his first book, First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Waleed: Businessman Billionaire Prince, published by Harper Collins.
In 2011 he authored a preface for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) annual report "Attacks on the Press 2010", which examined working conditions for journalists in more than 100 countries.