Nihal Arthanayake

British radio and television presenter

Nihal Arthanayake (born 1 June 1971) is a British radio and TV presenter who broadcasts on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Nihal Arthanayake was born on 1 June 1971, to Theravada Buddhist Sri Lankan parents. Nihal began his involvement in the music industry as a promoter of rap shows in his native Essex, while he was studying at Burnt Mill School, in Harlow, Essex.

Nihal began a career as a rap recording artist performing as 'MC Krayzee A'. In 1988 he released the track 'Into The Music' on the British Hip Hop compilation 'Hard Core One' on BPM Records. In 1995, Nihal was a member of the group 'The Muddie Funksters' and released the 4 track EP 'Brown Like Muddie' on Go! Discs Records and the 7" flexi disc single 'I'm The M The B The S The T' for Hip Hop Connection Magazine. He was also briefly a member of alternative hip hop outfit Collapsed Lung and worked with Fun Da Mental and Punjabi MC, Badmarsh & Shri, Mentor, Sona Family and DJ Sanj.

In the late 1990s Arthanayake turned to music promotion working for artists as diverse as Nitin Sawhney, Judge Jules, Mos Def and Elton John and it was while working for the groundbreaking Asian Beats record label Outcaste Records he promoted, amongst others Badmarsh & Shri's Signs album. At the end of 2004, they released a compilation album as a reflection of the music they play on the show. After an initial high profile start, the show was rescheduled to the early morning 'graveyard' hours. Eventually Bobby Friction left the show, leaving the title as "Asian Beats with Nihal". In October 2007 Arthanayake became the presenter of the Weekend Breakfast Show on Radio 1; he was one of only two DJs to present both a mainstream and a specialist show on the channel, the other being Annie Mac. He also provided holiday cover for Radio 1 colleagues. In September 2008 he was moved from weekend breakfast to weekend afternoons 13.00 16.00 on Radio 1. and a Sony Award for Best Speech Programme for his Asian Network show. In June 2014, it was announced that in September 2014, Arthanayake would leave BBC Radio 1. Until September 2016 Arthanayake had his own discussion programme concerned with societal and political topics at BBC Radio A (Asian Network) Channel: Nihal. Discussion and debate on the big issues

In September 2016 Nihal joined BBC Radio 5 Live co hosting the "Afternoon Edition" show with Sarah Brett. After Sarah Brett left the show it was renamed Nihal Arthanayake; it is broadcast Monday Thursday 1pm 4pm.

Arthanayake's TV appearances began in 1999 alongside Emma B on BBC2's Webwise. He also hosted his own rap show The Drop on MTV Base,
In August 2005, he appeared on BBC2's Art School, alongside Ulrika Jonsson and Keith Allen, spending two weeks at the Chelsea School of Art and learn about modern art. but did not get past the first round, after cooking a Thai chicken curry on rosti for the Invention Test. With inside knowledge of the music industry he has contributed commentary on various music and culture related topics on programmes ranging from the BRIT Awards, The Culture Show and Channel 5's The Wright Stuff, to MTV Base's Hip Hop Candy, and has appeared as a guest panellist on music comedy quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks broadcasting short explainers from Tokyo about how some of the less well known sports work.

Following the success of the Radio 1 show, Arthanayake launched his own club night called Bombay Bronx in May 2004 as an opportunity to showcase his love of rap music but with a distinctly Asian perspective. Since its creation, Bombay Bronx has seen some of the biggest artists on the 'Asian Beats' scene perform live, such as Swami, Raghav, Jay Sean, Belgian Ben, Skiddy McGee and Mentor Kolektiv, as well as giving a platform for unsigned artists such as Sunit, Raxtstar and Serese. As well as DJ ing at a variety of events up and down the country, Nihal has DJ ed the Isle of Wight Festival, Glastonbury Festival and Bestival in the UK. Internationally, he has performed in Bangladesh, Dubai, Germany, India, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand and toured the U. S. with Bobby Friction and Raghav.

In 2005, Nihal and former colleague Bobby Friction represented London as members of a team of cultural ambassadors during the successful 2012 Summer Olympics London bid. and 2012.

In November 2023, while speaking at a journalism diversity conference in UK, Arthanayake stated that working within an "overwhelmingly white" environment at the BBC depressed him and affected his mental health due to the lack of diversity. He went on to say "It’s really affecting me that I walk in and all I see is white people". GB News commentators took offence at his statement, labelling it "racist", and highlighting that the ethnically indigenous British people are white.

Arthanayake used to live in the Westbourne Park area of London. He moved to Manchester in 2016 when he joined BBC Five Live. Arthanayake is a lifelong fan of Tottenham Hotspur.