Matt Frei

Matt Frei is anchor of BBC World News America, a nightly newscast airing on BBC America and BBC World News.

Broadcast from the BBC's Washington DC bureau, each evening the programme delivers in-depth reports on the day's major international and US news.

From the DC studio, Matt interviews newsmakers and leads roundtable discussions featuring expert opinion from commentators and major players.

Prior to taking up this post, Matt had been the BBC's Washington correspondent since 2003 - reporting on major events including hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Presidential election.

Before arriving in Washington, Matt was the BBC's Asia correspondent based in Singapore and Hong Kong, taking up his post just before the handover to China.

When he arrived in Hong Kong, the forthcoming power change appeared to be heralding a new Asian century, but much of his time was spent covering economic collapse.

The most dramatic events took place in Indonesia, but the riots in South Korea, the worst recession in Hong Kong's history and the economic decline in Japan all followed.

Matt is no stranger to dramatic events. He arrived in Germany as Bonn correspondent on the day the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.

Earlier that year he reported on the Intifada as the stringer in Jerusalem, and subsequently the Gulf War as the London foreign affairs correspondent.

Between 1992 and 1996 he was south European correspondent in Rome from where he covered events in Bosnia, North Africa and closer to base, the Mafia. His book, Italy: the Unfinished Revolution, was published in 1995.

Matt won the coveted Bayeux award for War Correspondents (2000) for his coverage of the conflict in Indonesia.

He has also been honoured with a Bafta, a Royal Television Society International News Award (2000) and has won the Amnesty International Asia Award in both 1997 and 1998 for Newsnight features on Vietnam and Indonesia.

Matt graduated from Oxford University in 1986 with a degree in History and Spanish, and joined the BBC in 1986 shortly after.

His first job was in the German Section of BBC World Service before he moved to English language Current Affairs from 1987 to 1988.

He is married with four children.