| Alastair Leithead | |
| Birth Date: | 1972 1, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Amersham |
| Education: | University of Manchester |
| Occupation: | Journalist |
| Credits: | BBC News |
Alastair Malcolm Leithead (; born 1972) is an English journalist working as a foreign correspondent for the BBC. Leithead was based in Nairobi from 2015 to 2019.[1] He works across all BBC News outlets.
Alastair Leithead was born in Amersham to Arthur Leithead, a security manager, and Edna Leithead (née Mooney), a teacher in private education. He was raised in Blaydon-on-Tyne and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle.[2] He then went to the University of Manchester to study geography.[3]
After graduating from the University, Leithead worked at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle before joining BBC Radio Newcastle. Later he worked as a news producer in London.
As a foreign correspondent, Leithead has been based in Africa and Asia before moving to Kabul. There he covered the war in Afghanistan. Leithead has reported from a refugee camp in South Sudan.More recently, he has been based in Los Angeles before being re-located to Kenya as the BBC's Africa Correspondent in July 2015.[4]
Leithead won the 2007 Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents Television Award for his war reporting. In 2005/6 he was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society's TV Journalism Award, and in 2008 he was shortlisted for a BAFTA for best news coverage.