Georja Calvin-Smith is a Paris based writer, journalism trainer, TV news presenter and producer who has worked in international magazine and current affairs broadcasting for over a decade. She currently produces and fronts the daily ‘Eye on Africa’ bulletin at France 24, an international news network broadcasting in English, French and Arabic. Georja also anchors the weekly ‘Across Africa’ magazine show.
After studying law in the UK she became a news reporter and presenter in Manchester and produced stories, features and documentaries for the BBC, ITV and HBO in New York. She's interviewed several heads of state including the presidents of Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Namibia, Mali and Angola.
Georja's reported from around the world and is an insightful and friendly host of debates and corporate events.
She regularly collaborates with the UN and other international organizations in moderating high level debates and dialogues. In 2019 she chaired a presidential panel at the first Luanda Biennale and pan African Forum for the culture of Peace. She’s led nuanced discussions at the UN’s world press freedom day event in Jakarta and in 2018 delved into Africa’s economy during conversations with policy makers at the World Export Development Forum in Zambia.
Georja guided keynote sessions for the COP21 climate conference in Paris, shaping discussions that included former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg the Governor of California, Jerry Brown and Paris's Mayor, Anne Hidalgo. She regularly leads events for the African Development Bank, and has moderated televised debates for the institution in Ahmedabad, India and Busan, South Korea. She’s overseen a panel of ministers and presidents discussing their continent's economic challenges as chair of the OECD's Africa Forum in Paris and featured alongside Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee and ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in Le Monde's 'Women in Africa' conference.
Georja is a professor of the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.
