Melissa Stokes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Melissa Tania Stokes 1978or1979(age 46–47) [1] |
| Television | |
Melissa Tania Stokes (born 1978or1979 [1] ) is a New Zealand television newsreader and reporter. She is the newsreader of 1News during the weekends.
Stokes grew up in Tauranga. Her mother was part Chinese. [1] Her first job was working at the deli section of a New World supermarket. [2] Her parents ran fabric shops and she worked for them as a teenager. At age 16, she and her family moved to Christchurch, where she finished high school and attended broadcasting school. Her uncle, Spencer Jolly, was a TVNZ journalist during Robert Muldoon's term as prime minister, and later worked for Channel 9 in Brisbane. Because of this, as a teenager Stokes visited the channel's studio. She has said her uncle partly inspired her to work in television. [1]
Stokes began working for TVNZ in 2001, as a reporter for the morning news programme Breakfast . [1] Between 2006 and 2008, she was the TVNZ Europe correspondent. [3] In December 2018 it was announced that Stokes would replace Peter Williams to become the 1News at 6pm newsreader during the weekends. [4] On the same day of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Stokes travelled to the United Kingdom as a presenter for TVNZ's rolling coverage of the event. [3]
Stokes is married to Dave Pierce, a cameraman, [5] and they have two children. [1] Her mother chose to die by euthanasia after having cancer for about seven years. [6]