Kavita Puri is a multi award-winning journalist, executive producer and broadcaster. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed book “Partition Voices: Untold British Stories” which was adapted for the stage at the Donmar Warehouse in London. She is the Chair of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 and a Trustee of the V&A Museum. Her new podcast series will be released in August 2025 on BBC Sounds.

Kavita has worked at the BBC in senior editorial positions on its flagship current affairs programmes, covering politics, investigations and foreign affairs. She has also presented landmark series on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, as well as the weekly programme The Inquiry.

She is the creator, writer and presenter of Three Million on BBC Sounds which was named a Podcast of the year in the Times, Guardian/Observer and TheWeek. The series won Gold for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2024, Best Radio Programme at the Broadcast Press Guild Awards 2025, and Best History Podcast at the Association of International Broadcasters Awards 2024. Kavita won Presenter of the Year for the series at the Eastern Eye Arts Culture and Theatre Awards 2024. She was also a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2024. The series was described in the Sunday Times as “the best history podcast I’ve heard in years….intellectually rigorous, emotionally resonant and elegantly made.” The Observer said it was a “superb account of the Bengal famine ….Three Million is great radio, not just because of the story, which is awful and enraging and needs to be heard, but because of Puri’s presentation – measured, dedicated and beautifully voiced.” The Financial Times said the series was “the real deal, a triumph of research and reporting that should be heard far and wide.” The Wire India described it as an “astonishing success,” India’s Open Magazine said “Nobody else has done anything comparable…It is moving beyond words” and Eastern Eye “Three Million is more than just a documentary; it is a testament of human resilience and a reminder of the enduring impact of historical tragedies.”

Kavita devised, wrote and presented the landmark three-part series, Partition Voices, on Radio 4 marking the 70th anniversary of the partition of India. It was awarded The Royal Historical Society’s Best Radio and Podcast Prize and its overall Public History Prize. She also oversaw the BBC’s coverage of the 70th anniversary, which included a Newsnight special programme in front of a live audience of hundreds. Partition Voices: Untold British Stories was published in 2019 by Bloomsbury. A new edition to mark the 75th anniversary came out in July 2022, as well as a sequel to the radio series, Inheritors of Partition, on BBC Radio 4. The book was adapted for the stage as “Silence” at the Donmar Warehouse in September 2022 and was on tour in 2024.

Kavita is also the creator of Radio 4’s Three Pounds in My Pocket which she writes and presents. It is the first programme to document the social history of South Asians in post-war Britain. It is currently on its fifth series. The Guardian said it was “captivating and epic” describing it as ““the radio series preserving the nation’s south Asian past.” It is the recipient of the New York Festivals Radio Award.

The Radio Times described Kavita as “our foremost chronicler of the lives of British South Asians.” She regularly lectures on British South Asian history and gave the Royal Historical Society’s annual Colin Matthew Memorial lecture at Gresham College. She speaks at universities, and has given the Darwin College public lecture at Cambridge University. She gives talks at schools and has spoken at literary festivals around the world, and has written on the subject in the Guardian, Times, Evening Standard, Radio Times, Spectator and Huffington Post. For the past few years she has been a monthly columnist for BBC History Magazine.

​Kavita was an executive producer in Current Affairs. Most recently, she was the co-creator of Burning Sun released in 2023, on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds and as a TV documentary in May 2024. It was the most viewed programme ever on the BBC World Service youtube channel - in the first week of transmission it had been watched by over 17 million people.

As the editor of Our World she commissioned and executive produced foreign documentaries, including co-commissions with Panorama. The programme’s coverage of Yemen won a Royal Television Society Award, and Starving Yemen a Foreign Press Award for Best News Story and Association of International Broadcasters Award for Best Impact. She was a Commissioning Editor at Global News Ltd and the Jeremy Vine Editor for the BBC's Election coverage. Kavita spent her early career at BBC Newsnight as a political producer, film producer and assistant editor. She oversaw its 2010 General Election, and edited special programmes including Inside Latin America from Argentina and Peru, the Inauguration of Barack Obama from Washington, and Iraq: Ten Years On in front of a live audience.

​Kavita was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Asian Media Awards in 2015. She has been a judge for the Rory Peck, One World Media Awards and Women in Film over Fifty; and was on the advisory committee for the Edinburgh International Television Festival. She was on the steering group to mark the BBC’s centenary in 2022. Kavita also worked with the Bristol Museum and the British Library Sound Archive on preparing content for secondary school teachers and children on partition. She is the Chair of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 and is a Fellow of The Royal Historical Society, a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Chair of the V&A East Committee.

​She studied Law at Cambridge University and briefly trained as a corporate solicitor. She grew up in Kent and lives in London with her husband, two children and dog Coco.