is Bidisha Bandyopadhyay Bidisha

Bidisha is a British broadcaster, presenter and journalist across TV, film, radio, newspapers, magazines and live events. She specialises in international human rights, current affairs and the arts and culture and offers political analysis, arts critique and cultural diplomacy tying these interests together. She writes for the main UK broadsheets (currently as a columnist and arts critic for The Observer and The Guardian) and presents and commentates heavily for BBC TV and radio, CNN, Channel 5, Channel 4 News and Sky News. Her fifth book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London (2015), is based on her outreach work in UK prisons, refugee charities and detention centres. Her latest publication, an essay called The Future of Serious Art, came out in November 2020, published by Tortoise Media.

She is also a highly acclaimed film maker and photographic artist. Her latest film series, Aurora, launched in October 2020 and ran until spring 2023. Her first film, An Impossible Poison, premiered in Berlin in November 2017 and received its London premier in March 2018. It has been highly acclaimed and selected for numerous international film festivals. Her photographic stills are in numberous private collections internationally and her work has been curated and selected by the NHS 100 Rooms project, the Art on a Postcard Auctions and other artworld events.

Bidisha was born in London and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls. She studied Old and Middle English at Oxford University, where she was a college scholar, for her undergraduate degree. She then gained an MSc in Economic History, Moral and Political Philosophy and Philosophy of the Social Sciences at the London School of Economics.