Related Speakers
-
Denise Drysdale
-
Mark 'Jacko' Jackson
-
Kim Hughes
-
Mike Whitney
-
Simon O'Donnell
Television presenter, MC and event host
Leila McKinnon is a reporter for Network Nine’s A Current Affair and a co-host of the Today Show on Saturday and Sunday mornings. An accomplished journalist and presenter, she is intelligent and friendly – the perfect host for a corporate event or celebration.
Leila McKinnon has interviewed a myriad of prominent figures in Australian and international life – from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to former Wiggle Geoff Page and star singer Delta Goodrem to Tom Hanks, Beyonce and Pierce Brosnan. She famously scolded bad boy Cory Worthington on A Current Affair in an interview that went viral and became a You Tube sensation.
Unafraid to tackle hard-line issues, Leila McKinnon has extensively reported on topics that include increasing gang problems, drug issues, and the controversial Gordon Wood trial. As a foreign correspondent for the Nine Network, based in Los Angeles, she was the first journalist to track down and confront the notorious doctor Jayant Patel, who was later extradited to Australia to face charges of negligence due to deaths in a McKay hospital. She also reported extensively from Guantanamo Bay on the David Hicks affair.
In 2007, Leila McKinnon traveled extensively through the United States to report for the first two seasons of the hit prime time show What’s Good For You.
More about Leila McKinnon:
Leila McKinnon’s career in the media began with the completion of her journalism degree in Queensland and her first role on television in Rockhampton in 1993 with WIN television. She moved to Cairns to work with the WIN network in 1995.
Leila’s moved to the Nine Network began in early 1996 to report and present the weather for the newly created Nine Gold Coast News. She went on to report for A Current Affair and read the National Nine News with Karl Stefanovic in Brisbane before moving to Sydney in 2001.
In Sydney, Leila presented the 11am News, the Today Show News and often hosted the Today Show prior to working for several years in the United States.