About 

  • Robyn Curnow is a CNN anchor and host of CNN International's CNN Newsroom with Robyn Curnow, which also regularly airs on CNN/US.

    Curnow previously served as a CNN correspondent in Johannesburg and London. She is based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta.

    Curnow has reported extensively on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, interviewing frontline medical workers, scientists and other public health experts about the latest news, data and stories on how the coronavirus is impacting people all over the world.

    She also covers key U.S. political stories including President Donald Trump and his administration -- tracking the diplomatic and geopolitical implications for CNN's international viewers -- as well as issues affecting Americans like maternal mortality rates and immigration. When Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 this fall, Curnow was on the air anchoring CNN's coverage across CNN International and CNN/US.

    She has anchored CNN's coverage of the recent explosion in Beirut, multiple terror attacks across Europe and North Africa, as well as North Korea and the Syrian war. She was part of CNN's 2020 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award winning coverage of the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi as well as CNN's Emmy-nominated coverage of a 2018 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed dozens of children.

    When Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe's president in 2017, Curnow was integral to the network's coverage of the long-ruling autocrat, which was recognized with a 2019 Royal Television Society Award in the Breaking News category.

    Curnow was on air when coalition forces launched the Mosul offensive in October 2016, which contributed to News and Documentary Emmy nomination for CNN, and she reported live from Havana on the death of Fidel Castro as well as U.S. President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba in 2016.

    While based in South Africa as a correspondent, Curnow led CNN's coverage of Nelson Mandela's death and reported live from his funeral. Curnow had a long association with Mandela, interviewing him a number of times during and after his presidency. Her conversation with him on his 90th birthday was the last interview he gave.

    Curnow has interviewed Oscar Pistorius and was based in Pretoria during his murder trial. Her documentary on the Olympian, commissioned by Anderson Cooper 360°, also featured exclusive footage and interviews with Pistorius' inner circle.

    Curnow has interviewed former U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, as well as former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Separately, she has also spoken to former First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

    She has covered a wide range of stories from Africa such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the soccer World Cup, political scandals involving South African President Jacob Zuma and Boko Haram. She traveled extensively on the continent and reported from Zimbabwe on human rights abuses and corruption.

    Curnow started reporting for CNN in 2001 in London, covering stories like the death of Pope John Paul II from the Vatican, the South Asian tsunami and the London bombings in 2005.

    Before joining CNN, Curnow was a reporter for the BBC and for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

    She graduated with a master's degree in International Relations from Cambridge University, and is an alumni of Magdalene College at Cambridge, where she received a Chevening scholarship.

    Curnow was born in Perth, Australia and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa.