Sharanjit Leyl

Sharanjit Leyl (born 1973) is a Singaporean former producer/presenter, for the BBC. She regularly anchored Asia Business Report and Newsday on BBC One, the BBC News Channel and BBC World News from the BBC's Singapore studio. She was also a reporter and producer on the shows along with World Business Report. She has filed reports for radio on the BBC World Service business programmes as well as its arts and culture programmes, and written for BBC news online.

Early life and education Leyl was born in Singapore to a Sikh family of Indian descent that migrated to Singapore during the 1930s. Leyl moved to Washington, D.C. in her teens with her family, where her father worked for the Singapore Ministry of Defence in defence procurement. There she earned a degree in both journalism and English Literature from the University of Maryland College Park. She then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where she completed a master's degree in English Literature at the University of British Columbia which focused on post-colonial writers such as Salman Rushdie.

Career Leyl began her broadcasting career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1997. While there she reported for the award-winning show The Pacific Rim Report. In 1999 she moved to Singapore where she had a similar role at the financial news service provider Bridge Information Systems.

On 8 May 2024, Leyl was installed as the new Chancellor of Bath Spa University, making her the first female Chancellor of the university, the second Chancellor in almost 20 years, and the first Asian Chancellor of a British university in the United Kingdom.

Personal life Leyl lives with her English husband and their son and divides her time between Singapore and Bath, Somerset. Her hobbies include running, politics, art and theatre.