About

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Photo of Hannah Gelbart in front of the BBC's London Broadcasting House

Hannah Gelbart is a presenter, reporter, multi-award winning investigative journalist and filmmaker for BBC News. 

Since joining the BBC on its flagship Journalism Trainee Scheme in 2015, she's always been keen to make the news more accessible to young people. She specialised in social media news and worked on My World, a news programme for teenagers executively produced by Angelina Jolie. 

She has produced and presented documentaries about disinformation trends online, focussing on human stories such as children in Syria begging on TikTok, women whose nudes are shared on Telegram without their consent, and victims of crypto scammers profiting from the Russia-Ukraine war. She told her own family’s story for the BBC: about her grandfather, an orphaned child Holocaust survivor, who came to the UK in 1945.

As the lead presenter of What in the World, Hannah hopes to cut through the noise online and tell stories in a warm, uplifting way that connects with listeners worldwide. She is as an ambassador for the BBC’s Young Reporter scheme, going into schools to talk about what journalists do, and on the BBC’s Next Generation Committee, which advises the BBC Executive Committee on issues including how to engage younger audiences. 

Hannah speaks five languages, having graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese. Outside of work, she dabbles in partner acrobatics and AcroYoga.

Photo © Laura García

Awards

Amnesty Media Awards, 2023

Shortlisted for 'TikTok Begging', an investigation into how families in camps for displaced people in Syria came to be begging for gifts on TikTok Live. We found that TikTok takes as much as 70% of the donations.

Lovie Award (Bronze), 2019

For BBC 100 Women:Trailblazers documentary series in 2019, I reported the story of Arlette Contreras, whose leaked CCTV images were a catalyst to Latin America's "Me Too" movement.

FIPP 'Rising Stars in Media' award, 2018

For my contribution to the BBC's 'CEO Secrets' series in 2018, covering business stories with a focus on young, female audiences.

Press & Publicity