Mohit Bakaya, Hon. FRSL (born 12 November 1964) [1] is the controller of BBC Radio 4. [2] He joined the BBC in 1993 [3] and produced programmes such as Front Row [4] and Night Waves [5] before becoming the commissioning editor for factual in 2008. [6]
He was appointed as controller of Radio 4 in 2019, replacing Gwyneth Williams. [7]
In 2023, Bakaya was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [8]
Mohit Bakaya was born in south west London in 1964. His father Madan was a Bollywood production manager who had moved to England in the early 1960s to promote Hindi films. Bakaya's mother Uma was a software developer for IBM; she died when he was eight. His half-brother, Samir Shah, who is 13 years older than Bakaya, shared the same mother. As of 2024 [update] , Shah is chairman of the BBC. [9]
Bakaya attended a state school in Pimlico, before reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford. [9] [1]
In 1993, Bakaya was chosen by the BBC for a training scheme. He has been a producer and editor of arts programmes on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. In 1998, he launched the Radio 4 arts magazine series Front Row. He became controller of Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra in 2019. [9]
Bakaya's first marriage was to Josephine Ryan, an antiques dealer, with whom he has a son and daughter. Bakaya's second wife, Victoria Shepherd, is an author who was a producer with him on Radio 3's Night Waves . The couple have a son. [9]
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