Diaa Bekheet

Diaa Bekheet is an award-winning broadcaster, writer and editor based in Washington. His articles, reports and photographs have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines worldwide, including The Los Angeles Times. He worked for a host of media outlets, including Radio Cairo in English, ETV News, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) and the Associated Press. He joined VOA in Feb. 1989 as an International Broadcaster, hosting a variety of popular news and entertainment shows such as Newshour, Radio Ride Across America, Business Week, and Jazz Club USA. He has interviewed several high-profile newsmakers, statesmen, the Hollywood maverick, Robert Wise, who won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for both West Side Story in 1961 and The Sound of Music in 1965. Diaa produced and presented more than 1,500 Jazz Club USA and Jazz Beat shows, and interviewed a number of artists and Jazz celebrities, including the legendary Dizzy Gillespie, Ramsey Lewis, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, George Benson, Omar Hakim, South Africa's 'King of Jazz' Abdullah Ibrahim and others. Diaa is currently an editor for our main English site, VOAnews.com. Listen to Jazz Beat.