Oona King

Oona King is Head of Diversity at Channel 4 (March 2009 - present).  Before taking this position Oona was Senior Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister on Equalities, Diversity and Faith at 10 Downing Street.  She is also a broadcaster, writer, and political campaigner.  

She chairs the Institute for Community Cohesion (iCoCo), is Founding Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Genocide Prevention in the House of Commons; and Chair of Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, a £30m project which seeks to bring different communities together through art.  Oona has written for papers including the Guardian, New Statesman, Sunday Telegraph, Express and Observer, and is a presenter for television and radio documentaries. 

Her most recent television documentary, on the life of Martin Luther King, was broadcast in April 2008 on BBC2 and nominated for a Royal Television Society award.  Her role as a television presenter includes work for Channel 4 (The Last Word), BBC (The Struggles I've Seen), and Sky News (News reporter and commentator 2005-07).

Oona was MP for Bethnal Green & Bow from 1997-2005, became PPS to the Cabinet Minister for Trade & Industry, and was previously PPS to the Minister for e-Commerce. She says: "As an MP I campaigned on several disability-related areas such as speech therapy, autism, and disability access. After spending some time in a wheelchair to highlight the problems facing wheelchair users, I was confirmed in my view that disabled people face some of the worst discrimination in Britain today.  This extends to almost every area of life from education to employment to social exclusion.  I know the BCIDN will continue to campaign against the discrimination that bars so many talented disabled people from a career in the creative industries."