Jasmine Dotiwala

Dotiwala was born and grew up in the Southall district of West London.[1] Dotiwala is of the Zoroastrian faith; as a teenager, she was encouraged by her father to read the Bible and an English translation of the Quran.[2] She participated in the performing arts through her childhood, including ballet, gymnastics and choir, and also worked with the charity Help the Aged. After completing her A Levels, she studied theatre, media and dance at university while searching for internships. She eventually landed a job at Planet 24, a production company that worked on the morning show The Big Breakfast, and soon after she auditioned for a role on the Channel 4 programme The Word.[3]

After appearing on The Word for several years, Dotiwala moved to MTV Europe where she was a presenter for MTV News, before becoming senior producer of shows including Making the Video and MTV Cribs.[4][5] In 2006, she became head of MTV Base, where she interviewed artists such as Jay-Z and Eminem.[4] In April 2007, The Guardian included her into the list of 30 most important ethnic minorities in media.[6] In 2009, she returned to Channel 4,[7] where she worked on music programs, such as The Word twentieth anniversary special.[4] In 2011, Dotiwala moved to the BBC to work in their Children's Development team, before moving to the BBC Music department where she worked on developing youth music content.[4]

From 2011 to 2021, Dotiwala worked at Media Trust, where she worked on the news shows London 360, UK 360, and Arts 360. In 2014, she began reporting on mini arts and culture features for Channel 4 News. From 2014 to 2019, she returned to MTV to produce the MTV EMA Awards. In January 2018, she took over as Head of Youth Engagement & Media at Media Trust. In April 2018, Dotiwala was requested to give evidence at the House of Commons to MP's for the Youth Violence Commission.[8] In May 2019, she was called to give evidence to peers at the House Of Lords around the subject of the future of public service broadcasters in the era of streaming services.[9][10] On 15 March 2022, Dotiwala was called to give evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee about the future of the BBC and its funding. On January 20 2022 Dotiwala hosted the first ever Digital Culture Awards for Arts Council England and the Digital Culture Network.

Dotiwala acted as a judge for the Woman's Hour Power List 2018, which recognises women working in the music industry.[11][12] Dotiwala was announced as a presenter for the weekly BBC Radio London radio show The Scene in late 2018.[13] In October 2020, she began working for Netflix UK.

Dotiwala has written or blogged on a variety of publications including Huffington Post UK, The Voice,[5] Touch Magazine, the Daily Mail and Caribbean fashion publication Ocean Style.[14] She also wrote a column for urban music magazines Touch and Tense and wrote one-off columns in Vibe.

Dotiwala has blogged on Metro UK Online[15] and for the rap periodical The Source.[16]

• Official website