Mobeen Azhar

In 2022, Azhar presented a six-part true-crime series Santa Claus the Serial Killer on the relaunched BBC Three channel, exploring the case of serial killer Bruce McArthur. The series was filmed in Canada and explores themes of race, faith, culture and sexuality. The Guardian criticised the series: "At times there is a sense that this is less an investigation and more a whistlestop tour of the Bruce McArthur murder tourism industry. These people have told their stories countless times now, and there is something truly unedifying about Azhar’s (and the audience’s) willingness to rubberneck at so much well-worn trauma."

Azhar was appointed a member of the Advisory Board for the 2022 Edinburgh TV Festival, led by Afua Hirsch, appointed Advisory Chair in March 2022.

In August 2022, Azhar received an honorary fellowship at Leeds Trinity University, where he studied journalism for the first time in 18 years.

In May 2021, Azhar presented a BBC Two documentary The Battle For Britney: Fans, Cash, And A Conservatorship, reporting from California and Louisiana on the #FreeBritney movement who claim music star Britney Spears is being "kept a virtual prisoner in her own home" through a conservatorship managed by her father. Spears was reported to have criticized the documentary, describing it as "hypocritical".

In May 2021, Azhar presented a four-part BBC series Scam City: Money, Mayhem and Maseratis, investigating the world of Instagram scams, forex trading and pyramid schemes.

In 2020, Azhar won the Royal Television Society 'Presenter of the Year' award for Hometown: A Killing. In the same year, he also won 'Best Presenter' at the Grierson Awards for the same documentary series.

In 2019, Azhar presented BBC documentaries The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On, A Black and White Killing: The Case that Shook America and The Best Pakistani Transgender Retirement Home.

In 2019, Azhar also presented six-part BBC documentary series Hometown: A Killing, reporting on the police shooting of Yassar Yaqub in Huddersfield in 2017. Yasser Yaqub's father Mohammed Yaqub, who featured in the series, claimed Azhar had attempted to "smear" his son's name. Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman also criticized the programme, claiming it depicted the town as "a hotbed of violent crime". The docu-series went on to win several awards.

In June 2019, Azhar won the first Sandford St Martin Journalism Award for his BBC radio programme The Dawn of British Jihad.

In 2018, Azhar’s show on the BBC Asian Network won Best Radio Show at the Asian Media Awards.

In 2017, he won a BAFTA for producing the BBC series Muslims Like Us and in 2020, he won a Royal Television Society Award for presenting BBC documentary Hometown: A Killing. In 2019, Azhar became a presenter on new BBC Three show Plastic Surgery Undressed.

In May 2017, Azhar won a BAFTA for his work as a producer on the BBC series Muslims Like Us.

In 2016, Azhar joined a police team of "Taliban Hunters" in Karachi, Pakistan, as part of documentary reporting for BBC Panorama. During filming he was shot at by the Taliban.

In February 2016, Azhar presented the BBC Three documentary Webcam Boys, spending a couple of months with men who make money from performing in online sex shows.

Azhar has written about and reported extensively on musician Prince. In 2015, he presented BBC documentary Hunting for Prince’s Vault and in September 2016, Azhar's debut book Prince Stories from the Purple Underground: 1958-2016 was published by Welbeck Publishing.

In August 2013, he investigated gay life in urban Pakistan for Assignment: Inside Gay Pakistan on the BBC World Service and on BBC Radio 4.

In 2012, Azhar was part of a team reporting from Waziristan in Pakistan on US drone strikes on the Afghan border for a BBC Panorama special, The Secret Drone War.

Mobeen Azhar (born 1980) is a British journalist, radio and television presenter and filmmaker. He produces investigative reports and films for the BBC exploring themes related to politics, true crime, extremism, counter terrorism and sexuality. He has presented and produced international documentaries for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three and is a regular BBC Asian Network presenter.