Alexandra Pascalidou is a Greek-Swedish columnist, television hostess, and author. She is also a frequent lecturer, discussion leader, and human rights activist.
Life and career
Pascalidou became known to the public in 1995 when she began hosting the multicultural television showMosaik on SVT, one of Sweden's public service channels. Along with Michael Alonzo, Dogge Doggelito, and Cissi Elwin, Pascalidou was a prominent figure in the Swedish part of Europarådet anti-racism campaign "All Different All Equal", known in Sweden under the working title "Youth Against Racism” in the mid-1990s. In 2000–01 she hosted Som sagt on SVT, a Saturday night program with a focus on literature and language topics. At the same time, she was a producer and reporter for the television show Striptease that focused on investigative journalism. In 2004, Pascalidou hosted the Olympics in Athens for SVT, following which she lived in Greece for two years, hosting various television shows including, for example, Friday night entertainment on ERT covering a day spent with such well-known personalities as Roberto Cavalli, Isabel Allende, and Roger Moore, among others. She also hosted a three-hour live Greekmorning television program every day. She was the hostess for the Eurovision Song Contest in Greece in 2005, and a commentator in Kiev the year when Greece won the competition for the first time. In the same year Pascalidou hosted Melodifestivalen in Sweden from Gothenburg. In January 2007, she became one of five hostesses of Sweden's TV4Förkväll, a daytime lifestyle program. She participated in the show Pokermiljonen on TV4 and was hostess for a series of charity galas on SVT, for example, På flykt with Kjell Lönnå and Uppesittarkväll with Anders Lundin. Pascalidou is a columnist and freelance writer in newspapers such as GP and Expressen. She has blogged continually on Metrobloggen until the newspaper ended their relationship. She gives lectures on diversity and the media, democracy and justice issues, rhetoric and leadership, gender and cultural competence. She has also served on the Board of BRIS and the board of Kvinnojouren Terrafem working with women's rights against men's violence. She is involved in women's health and is a member of the 2.6Miljoner Klubben and a mom's ambassador to RFSUs campaign. She sits on the board of the foundation, which helps young people in troubled areas with their homework to help them succeed academically and get access to secondary education. It was announced on 21 January 2016 that Pascalidou would host the semi-final allocation draw for Eurovision 2016, along with Jovan Radomir, in Stockholm, Sweden. Pascalidou is the founder of the criticized and the winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature will be announced in December 2018.
Alexandra has been accused several times of plagiarism and using ghost writers. Two instances of plagiarism have been exposed: in 2003 she copied large parts of text written by the journalist Daniel Hernandez for the Los Angeles Times, and in 2015 she was fired from the newspaper Metro after it was revealed that she had translated a Turkish poem by Aziz Nesin.
Awards
2019 – The WING Award 2019, Winner of the Category ‘Excellence in Women’s Issue in Storytelling Award’ About The WING Awards by Raices Limited The WING Awards is created to recognize and celebrate the change makers of our time, from all walks of life, bringing together exceptional and diverse talent. The Award evening put the spotlight on role-models and innovators who are an inspiration to our next generation. Read more at:
2019 – Global Woman Awards 2019 – Both National and International Winner Alexandra Pascalidou won the Global Woman Awards 2019 at the Global Woman Award Summit in London. She was awarded for her extraordinary work, fortitude, or noble qualities in the category ‘Influencer’ as she influence thousands of people in her work as an Activist, Journalist, Speaker and Writer. About Global Woman Global Woman is the platform for celebrating diversity, culture, women in business and networking. We Are Empowering Women Globally and Acting Locally. The big awards gala celebrate women empowerment. Global Woman gave ten Awards which will salute women who have made a great contribution to the world based on the criteria relevant to the New Paradigm ethos. Read more at: and
2016 – Nominated for Kristallen and the Big Journalist Award. Nominated for the Big Journalist Prize in the Category Storyteller of the Year : Lisa Jarenskog and Alexandra Pascalidou, for the documentary series They Call Us Beggars on Swedish TV, SVT.