Zinhle Essamuah

Zinhle Essamuah is the co-anchor of NBC News Daily and network correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, best known for her reporting spanning justice, culture, and poverty.

Recently, Zinhle’s reports earned NBC an ONA Award, as well as placed third for the Collier Prize. They’ve also spurred viewers to action: her investigation into the Acadiana Center for Youth in Louisiana moved the governor to sign a bill limiting solitary confinement in juvenile facilities; and her reporting on fake landlord scams in Detroit resulted in one viewer paying off a tenant’s home.

In 2022, Zinhle led NBC‘s broadcast coverage of the Jackson water crisis in Mississippi, securing exclusive interviews at key inflection points with senators, the mayor, the EPA, NAACP and more. Her reporting ultimately developed into the NBC documentary, Boiling Point. The same year, as Russia invaded Ukraine, Zinhle championed NBC’s first-to-air coverage of African and Indian nationals facing harassment and discrimination at the border

Prior, Zinhle opened the D.C. bureau for NowThis News, owned by Vox Media Group, as their lead politics producer during the Trump administration. She went on to anchor NowThis’ flagship broadcast KnowThis, a daily evening news show. During the show’s three-year run, Zinhle anchored in New York and around the country, while hosting the show’s daily Instagram series and debate night specials. Soon after, she was tapped to concurrently host KnowThis Live, a weekly political interview magazine program in NYC.

Zinhle’s original reports at NowThis garnered millions of views—including stories on Black Maternal Mortality, environmental justice, private immigration detention facilities, and more. She was lead writer on the daily newsletter, KnowThis, as well as a frequent contributor to the NowThis Brief podcast.

Zinhle’s extensive list of interviews includes luminaries such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Reese Witherspoon, Serena Williams, Anthony Fauci, Stacey Abrams, Adam Kinzinger, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Vicente Fox Padilla, Al Gore, and more.

Truly, Zinhle’s love of story began behind the camera. She’s an award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker whose freelance and corporate filmography has premiered on Starz/Hulu and at film festivals around the nation. Zinhle is a recipient of a Gracie Award for her original debut short documentary film documenting the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. She holds a dual masters in Media, Strategic Communication, and Documentary Filmmaking from The George Washington University.

As a first generation American with roots in the African diaspora, Zinhle (zing-clay) has a deep understanding of cross-cultural communication. Her incisive interviewing prowess has earned her opportunities to moderate at the Aspen Institute, United Nations, and more. She has a special interest in teaching and equipping the next generation of journalists, and is an adjunct professor at The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. In her free time, Zinhle brews tea, flips furniture, hosts dinner parties, and loves to sing and play her guitars.