Ayman Mohyeldin

Ayman Mohyeldin (, ) is an Egyptian-born American journalist, anchor and political commentator based in New York for NBC News and MS NOW. Previously the anchor of an MSNBC weekday afternoon show, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports (formerly MSNBC Live with Ayman Mohyeldin), he hosted Ayman on weekend evenings on MSNBC, and Fridays on Peacock. The show aired its final broadcast in late April 2025. Mohyeldin now co-hosts The Weekend Primetime with Elise Jordan, Catherine Rampell and Antonia Hylton. He previously worked for Al Jazeera and CNN. He was one of the first Western journalists allowed to enter and report on the handing over and trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity. Mohyeldin has also covered the 2008–2009 Gaza War as well as the Arab Spring.

Early life Mohyeldin was born in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian father, Medhat Mohyeldin, and a Palestinian mother, Abla Awwad. His father is a certified public accountant in Marietta, Georgia. Mohyeldin has an older brother, Ahmed, who is a resident neurosurgeon at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and former professional soccer star for the Atlanta Silverbacks. Mohyeldin lived in Egypt until the age of 5 when his parents emigrated to the U.S. He attended North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia.

Mohyeldin received his undergraduate education at American University in Washington, D.C., earning a BA in international relations with a focus on the European Union. He received an MA in international politics with a focus on Peace and Conflict Resolution. His graduate thesis was entitled "The News Media Paradigm in the War on Terrorism," and, in 2002, it was accepted by the International Association of Media Researchers Conference in Barcelona, Spain. He lived in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as a foreign news producer with CNN.

Career

Mohyeldin began his career in journalism working at NBC, as a desk assistant for the Washington D.C. bureau. Mohyeldin's first major assignments happened shortly after 9/11.

On February 6, 2011, Mohyeldin was again arrested by the Egyptian military upon trying to enter Tahrir square. He was released nine hours later.

On September 20, 2011, Mohyeldin rejoined NBC News, where his career began.

In January 2012, Mohyeldin traveled to Syria to cover the months-old uprising. Among the cities he visited was Daraa.

In the summer of 2013 Mohyeldin extensively covered the removal of President Mohamed Morsi from power In Egypt. That fall he also extensively covered the Syrian civil war and the effects of refugees overflowing into neighboring Lebanon. Mohyeldin also covered the agreement of Syria to dispose of their chemical weapons program.

During the uprisings in Ukraine in 2014, Mohyeldin covered extensively in both Kyiv and Donetsk. He traveled to the border in Eastern Ukraine and reported on Russian troop buildup, and the Ukrainian response. He also went "behind the scenes" into the occupied government buildings to report.

Israel–Gaza conflict Mohyeldin was sent by NBC as a correspondent to Gaza at the beginning of the one month-long 2014 conflict. His coverage was praised by media critics such as Glenn Greenwald for departing from "the standard pro-Israel coverage that dominates establishment American press coverage".

Two weeks into the conflict, on July 16, 2014, Mohyeldin witnessed and reported via a series of tweets, the death of 4 Palestinian children who were playing soccer and hide-and-seek on a Gaza beach. The first missile killed one child and the second killed the other 3. The killings were witnessed by many in the international press. Just moments earlier, Mohyeldin was kicking a soccer ball with these boys in front of his hotel. The Israeli government claimed that the beach was shelled in response to Hamas rocket fire allegedly originating from that area, though journalists who attended the scene said the beach was empty but for a fisherman's hut and a few tools.

Although Mohyeldin was a live witness to the event, NBC correspondent Richard Engel reported the story from Tel Aviv. NBC followed by pulling Mohyeldin from Gaza and terminating his reporting duties from Gaza indefinitely. Engel was sent to replace him in Gaza. NBC was subsequently criticized by independent media outlets for removing Mohyeldin, with many believing he was singled out for portraying Palestinians with empathy and social media trends accusing NBC of pro-Israel bias. On Sunday, August 3, 2014, he announced via social media that after 4 weeks on the road he was "taking time to be with family." Less than 48 hours later, Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease fire.

At the beginning of the Gaza war, Semafor reported that a number of Muslim hosts (including Mehdi Hasan, Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi) were sidelined from coverage by MSNBC. Mohyeldin has continued to report on the conflict since.

MSNBC shows Mohyeldin has hosted a number of shows on MSNBC since joining NBC News in 2011, including Morning Joe First Look, an early-morning pre-show for MSNBC's flagship morning show Morning Joe, and Ayman Mohyeldin Reports (originally MSNBC Live with Ayman Mohyeldin), a weekday afternoon show. In September 2021, his program Ayman took over the weekend evening spot formerly held by Joshua Johnson's The Week with Joshua Johnson, and it also streams on Peacock on Fridays, while Hallie Jackson took over his weekday afternoon slot. He is also a fill in guest host on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes, Deadline: White House, The Beat with Ari Melber, The Rachel Maddow Show, Alex Wagner Tonight, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.

Shortly after the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Mohyeldin received a call from a high school classmate in Kennesaw, Georgia, whose sister-in-law Rosanne Boyland died in the attack. Investigating how Boyland died and how "a previously apolitical 34-year-old homebody [was] so quickly radicalized in the summer of 2020" led to a five-part podcast entitled American Radical that premiered in December 2021.

Personal life Mohyeldin married Tunisian model Kenza Fourati on April 26, 2016, in a private ceremony in Marietta, Georgia. They have two children.