Graduates in the News: Kate Riley

The East Anglian Daily Times (reporting "everything that occurs in the district faithfully and fairly" since 1874) has a great profile of Kate Riley, a Leicester graduate who presents the sport on regional news programme Look East.

Born in California to a British dad (working for a multinational bank) and an American mum (assigned to US Embassies), Kate had a peripatetic childhood that took her from Oman to Hong Kong and all points inbetween. It was while living in Cameroon in 1990 that she first became interested in football – Cameroon of course did really well in that year’s World Cup and it was difficult not to be swept up in the football fever.

As a teenager, Kate settled in Suffolk and attended Ipswich High School for Girls. She became a keen supporter of Ipswich Town FC and even did babysitting duties for some of the players’ families. When she came to Leicester, where she studied for a degree in our Department of Geography, some of those players had moved to the Foxes so she stayed in touch.

Alongside her academic work, Kate was heavily involved with LUSH, our student radio station, and in her final year became Station Controller. This led to independent radio work and then a job at the BBC, where she is now a regular face covering the sports news on Look East.