Self-proclaimed pint-sized Pakistani, Summaya Mughal is a multi-award winning radio and TV presenter, podcaster and TEDx speaker.

She trained as an actor at the BAFTA Award-winning Television Workshop and upon graduating from university worked at the largest accounting firm in the world.

After realising accountancy wasn’t quite her vibe, Summaya auditioned for - and won – a competition for a role as a new evening show presenter on BBC Radio Nottingham and went on to cover the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, was awarded The Radio Academy’s 30 Under 30 and the BBC Local Radio Gillard for Newcomer of the Year. 

Passionate about championing stories from grassroots communities Summaya currently presents weekday Mid-Mornings on BBC Radio Leicester where she created her debut podcast Brown Gal Can’t Swim.

The podcast followed Summaya’s journey of learning to swim in 8 weeks and attempting a challenge set by Olympian Rebecca Adlington whist uncovering the barriers to swimming as a British-Pakistani Muslim woman. The podcast unpacked issues of identity, overcoming shame, balancing dual heritage, and the fear of breaking away from convention and expectation, yet still taking the plunge to help others.

Since its launch in October 2022, Brown Gal Can’t Swim has led to more adults taking up swimming and a number of new grassroots initiatives to support families gain the life-saving skill.

Summaya was given the ‘Voluntary and Community Sector award’ by the city of Nottingham for her contribution to the community and won the 2022 Podcast of the Year at the British Sports Journalism awards.