Dunja Hayali

Dunja Hayali (born 6 June 1974) is a German journalist and television presenter for public broadcaster ZDF. She has an interest in sports, and is also known for her social activism.

Early life and education

Hayali is the daughter of Assyrians from Mosul. Her mother is Chaldean Catholic, and her father is Syriac Orthodox. Hayali herself was a Catholic and was an altar server when she was young. However, she has left the church. Her parents initially moved from Baghdad to Vienna, Austria, to study medicine and pharmacy. At the time of Hayali's birth, her father ran his own practice in Datteln, where her mother helped out. Hayali's older brother is also a doctor, and her older sister first worked as a physician's assistant and later in a hospital.

In her youth, Hayali intensively pursued various sports. She played volleyball and soccer, trained judo and played tennis as a competitive sport until the age of 15.

Hayali studied at the German Sport University in Cologne from 1995 to 1999, majoring in "Media and Communication". During her studies, she completed internships at German radio and television stations.

Career

Early beginnings

After graduation, Hayali worked as a sports presenter for Deutsche Welle in Cologne and Bonn, as a freelancer for the private station Radio Cologne and as a presenter of the news program Journal on DW-TV in Berlin. Additionally, she presented some sports and news broadcasts on tv.nrw, a regional TV station in North Rhine-Westphalia that ceased operations in mid-2005.