Mark Dowd

Mark Dowd is a former Dominican Friar who worked at the BBC’s Newsnight and Panorama and went on to present a number of award winning TV programmes such as Children of Abraham and Tsunami: Where Was God? He has recently qualified as a speech and language therapist and hopes to combine this new career path with even more freelance broadcasting and writing for the national press.

Nelufar Hedayat

Nelufar is a journalist and presenter with six years’ experience working at the BBC. Specialising in news and current affairs her focus has often been looking at her native Afghanistan and the cultural upheaval experienced by women, children and families during conflict. She has co-produced, written and presented documentaries for television and radio, including Women, Weddings, War and Me, Riots and Revolutions: My Arab Journey and Music, Money & Hip Hop Honeys.

As part of the Newsround team Nel has anchored and presented live bulletins as well reports on locations across the UK covering breaking stories.

Remona Aly

Remona Aly is a freelance journalist, editor and media professional with a strong focus on faith-related issues. Remona writes for the Guardian on religion and identity, and is the former Deputy Editor of emel – a vibrant British Muslim lifestyle magazine which was the first Muslim magazine to launch nationwide. She is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Pause for Thought’.

She is the Campaigns Director at Exploring Islam Foundation specialising in PR campaigns and creative resources on Islam and Muslims across media platforms. She project-managed two ground-breaking campaigns: “Inspired by Muhammad” which was a poster-led initiative placed around London transport featuring British Muslims inspired by universal Islamic teachings; and “Missing Pages” which voiced unity with Holocaust Memorial Day and highlighted untold stories of solidarity between Muslims and Jews.

Jane Little

Jane Little is a broadcast journalist and writer who combines specialist reporting on religion with a wide brief as presenter. She regularly presents news and current affairs programmes for BBC Radio. She also works as a BBC Washington Correspondent. Jane was born and raised in Kendal, Cumbria. She read Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College, Cambridge, and then went to Harvard University where she studied the relationship between religion and politics in the US. She created the role of Religious Affairs Reporter at the BBC World Service, and later the role of Religion Editor at The World, an American public radio programme.

Vicky Beeching

Vicky Beeching is a theologian, writer and broadcaster. She is a regular on BBC Radio 4, Radio 2, Radio 5 Live, Sky News, BBC One and in The Independent, discussing her specialisms of religion, feminism and technology. She holds degrees from Oxford and is currently doing a PhD in the ethics and impact of online technology.

Emma Barnett

Writer and broadcaster, Emma is Digital Media Editor of The Telegraph, and has already twice been named Digital Journalist of the Year.

Edward Canfor-Dumas

Edward Canfor-Dumas is co-founder of Engi – a social enterprise that focuses on the effective and non-violent management of conflict, nationally and internationally and took the lead role in founding the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues. Alongside his conflict work, Edward is a TV scriptwriter whose award-winning credits include popular dramas The Bill and Kavanagh QC, and the worldwide hits Pompeii: The Last Day (nominated for two BAFTAs) and Supervolcano. A graduate of New College, Oxford, Edward has also authored two best-selling books on Buddhism.

Roger Bolton

Roger Bolton is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Feedback programme and used to present that network’s Sunday programme and Channel 4’s Right To Reply. He has been an independent producer, BBC Executive, and Editor of current affairs programmes such as Panorama, Nationwide and Heart of the Matter for the BBC, and This Week for ITV.