Quick Facts
Biography
Karthi Gnanasegaram is a British television and radio presenter working for the BBC, Classic FM, Royal Opera House and IMG.As of 2011 she is a regular presenter on the BBC for sports programmes and on BBC One Ten o'clock News, BBC Breakfast, Chris Evans Breakfast Show, Today, and the BBC One BBC Weekend News. As of 2017 she is also a presenter on Classic FM.
Education
She studied at King Edward VI High School for Girls, a public school in Edgbaston, Birmingham, followed by a Classics degree at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge she wrote for the student newspaper, Varsity, and played hockey, tennis and badminton (gaining Blues in the latter two sports). She played both the violin and piano to Grade 8, and toured Europe playing the violin with various West Midlands orchestras during her school holidays.
Presenting career
After working on BBC News and BBC Entertainment show, Liquid News, Gnanasegaram was a sports reporter and presenter at BBC London News.
She presented Sportsworld and StreetFood at Al Jazeera English in Doha before returning to the UK to present the news and sport for Sky News. Gnanasegaram returned to the BBC and was part of their presenting line-up at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and presented a BBC1 highlights show during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
She hosts Wimbledon tennis coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra as well as reports on matches. Gnanasegaram reports for BBC Sport on Match of the Day, Football Focus, Final Score and The Championships, Wimbledon. She has presented and reported from the Wimbledon tennis championships for BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Sport since 2008.
She is a regular presenter of the Today Sports Desk on Radio 4, and was involved in the shows guest edited by Lenny Henry and Sir Bradley Wiggins.
Gnanasegaram has covered Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, French Open tennis, Champions League final, Open Golf Championships, Ryder Cups, Ashes cricket Tests, The Boat Race and has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
In 2016, Gnanasegaram was part of the BBC Sport team at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She was a commentator for tennis, diving, judo and taekwondo amongst other sports at the Rio Olympic Park for BBC 5 Live.
In 2017 Gnanasegaram read the Classified Football Results on Sports Report, BBC Radio and BBC World Service becoming only the second female to do so after Charlotte Green.
In 2017, Gnanasegaram started presenting for Classic FM in their 25th anniversary year., and in 2018, she presented the Classic FM Sporting Music Countdown Show with Henry Blofeld. The UK voted and chose Chariots of Fire as the nation's favourite piece of classical music related to sport.
In 2018, she was the Amazon Prime on-court player interviewer at Eastbourne tennis championships and she was the presenter for the evening sessions for the US Open.