Anissa Naouai


Anissa Naouai is an American journalist and former television presenter. She is the CEO of Maffick Media, a Berlin-based digital media company with Russian links, as of February 2019.

Early life and career

Naouai was born in New York City and is of Tunisian and German-American descent.
In 2000-2001, Naouai studied at Hunter College City University of New York. In 2001, at age 19, she entered the school-studio at Moscow Art Theatre, graduating in 2005. As a student she starred in performances as Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Rose in The Rose Tattoo, and Mom in True West.

Acting

Naouai was a member of the international theater company Studio 6 with the Moscow Art Theater. Naouai performed the audiobook The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan in English for Russian company ArdisBook.

Documentary filmmaking

She produced the documentary film Isklyuchitelism, which was shown on NTV. Zashto?, another work she co-produced, was awarded Best Documentary Film by Cubavision International.

Journalism

Naouai appeared on the program What's going on? on REN TV, anchored by Margarita Simonyan. From 2009, she anchored the program In the Now for RT. The program brand has since expanded into a cross-channel digital platform that offers content via a variety of social media platforms. Naouai is the Chief Executive Officer of the Berlin-based media production company Maffick GmbH, which acquired In the Now in 2018. As of February 2019, Maffick's majority shareholder was Ruptly, a subsidiary of the Russian RT network.

Notable Interviews

On September 2, 2014, on her program In the Now, the general producer of the Ukrainian channel Ukraine Today Tetiana Pushnova accused RT of lying in her opening remarks before promptly leaving the interview, displaying the message "Russia Today Stop Lie."

Awards

New York Festivals finalist for Best News Analysis/Commentary for In the Now on RT.

Personal life

Naouai is married and has two children.