Lucy Hockings has spent more than twenty-five years telling international audiences what has just happened, usually while it is still happening. She went from regional television in New Zealand to a producer’s job at the BBC and then into the anchor’s chair, and she is now one of the network’s most recognisable global presenters.
Quick Bio / At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Lucy Hockings |
| Reported Date of Birth | March 7, 1974 |
| Birthplace | Taranaki, New Zealand |
| Education | University of Auckland |
| Early Career | Reporter, TVNZ, New Zealand |
| Joined BBC | 1999, initially as a producer |
| Current Role | Chief presenter, BBC News |
| Programmes | BBC News rolling coverage; The Global Story |
| Major Coverage | 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; death of Pope John Paul II; Gaza; Ebola |
| Recognition | World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, 2010 |
Taranaki to Auckland
Hockings is from Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. She studied at the University of Auckland and began her career as a reporter with TVNZ, the New Zealand state broadcaster.
New Zealand journalism is a small industry, which tends to mean reporters do everything — a useful grounding for the rolling news work she moved into.
The Move to London
She moved to the United Kingdom in 1999 and joined the BBC as a producer, moving up to senior producer the following year.
Starting on the production side rather than in front of the camera is a meaningful detail. Presenters who have produced tend to understand what is achievable in a live gallery under pressure, and it shows in how they handle breaking coverage.
The Big Stories
Hockings has anchored through most of the defining international events of the past two decades.
She covered the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. In 2005 she broadcast from the Vatican during the death of Pope John Paul II. She has reported on the 2014 Gaza conflict and on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, alongside the continuous run of elections, disasters and wars that fill an international news channel.
In March 2010 she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Chief Presenter
Hockings is now a chief presenter at BBC News, anchoring the network’s rolling international output. She also fronts The Global Story, the BBC’s daily podcast that takes a single international story and works through it at length.
The podcast is a different discipline from live anchoring — longer form, more conversational, built on interviewing the network’s own correspondents — and it has extended her audience considerably beyond television.
Why She Is Searched
Hockings is on air during major breaking events across multiple time zones, which means a large international audience recognises the face without necessarily knowing the name or the background.
She keeps her private life private, and this profile does not attempt to fill that in. Biographical details such as her exact date of birth circulate widely but are not confirmed by the BBC or by her directly, and are presented here as reported.
The Career in Short
A quarter of a century at the BBC, a route in through production rather than presentation, and a specialism in the hardest part of broadcast news: being live when nobody yet knows what has happened.
More broadcasting profiles: Lester Holt and Nigel Rosser.
