Jehan Casinader


Jehan Casinader is a New Zealand journalist and television presenter.

Early life

Jehan was born in New Zealand to Sri Lankan immigrant parents and raised in Lower Hutt. His father had been a print journalist in Sri Lanka, and worked at The Dominion Post after moving to New Zealand, so news and current affairs was a constant component of Jehan's home life and upbringing.
Jehan's first television appearance was on the game show Small Talk hosted by Jason Gunn in 1997. At the age of 13 Jehan successfully pitched a story on The Lord of the Rings to the Holmes programme on TV One. Jehan then began writing for youth magazine Tearaway, which gave him the opportunity at the age of 15 to interview then Prime Minister Helen Clark. Jehan went on to successfully pitch multiple features to The New Zealand Herald as a 16 year old.
Jehan studied Bachelor of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington.

Journalism career

After finishing university Jehan was employed on TVNZ's Close Up and remained on staff when the programme rebooted as Seven Sharp. In 2016 Jehan moved to TVNZ’s current affairs programme, Sunday, becoming their youngest-ever regular reporter.
Jehan produced and presented the talk show The Inside Word in 2018 which aired on TVNZ’s Duke channel, tackling tough topics such as negative body image, alcoholism and cyberbullying.
Jehan won 'Best Team Video' at the 2018 Voyager Media Awards for his team's coverage of the 2017 Edgecumbe flood. Jehan was also named 'Reporter of the Year' at the 2018 New Zealand Television Awards.
In 2019 Jehan presented an episode of What Next? on TVNZ 1 exploring future advances in medicine.