Sumi Somaskanda joined the BBC as Chief Presenter for the BBC News channel in March 2023. She is based in the BBC's Washington studio.

Sumi previously served as a senior presenter and correspondent based in Berlin for DW News, Germany’s international broadcaster, covering breaking news and major political events, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the 2020 US presidential elections. She also reported on Germany for various international publications, including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, and Newsweek.

She served as an Editor at the Berlin Policy Journal, Germany's premiere English-language foreign affairs magazine, and hosted the Berlin-based current affairs podcast Studio Berlin.

She regularly moderates panels and conferences and is an alumna of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship program. In addition to her native English, she speaks fluent German and Spanish, and conversational (Sri Lankan) Tamil.