Alum | Mariam Saab

ABC television presenter and fashion icon Marian Saab

Mariam Saab is a Lebanese-Australian journalist and television presenter. Saab is a news presenter on ABC News. She is a graduate of The McDonald College.

Her mother, Majida Abboud-Saab, migrated to Australia from Beirut in 1967 and is widely regarded as a trailblazer in multicultural public television, so it seems journalism runs in the blood.

In 2004, Saab began her career at SBS Radio as a broadcaster for Alchemy, the station’s national youth news, current affairs, and music program.

During a stint in the Middle East, Saab was a journalist for the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper. Her work included coverage of continued poverty in the country and was reported in policy briefings.

During this period, Saab also worked as a freelance producer for Al Jazeera English, France 24, SBS TV and the ABC with assignments in Doha, Tunisia, Beirut and Paris.

Saab lived in Paris, where she was an English-language news and programs presenter for France 24. She covered the November 2015 Paris attacks and their aftermath.

She also frequently appeared as a music critic for France 24’s Arts program, reporting on music trends from destinations including Tripoli and Beirut, and interviewed high-profile artists and entertainers, including Australian music icon Paul Kelly.

Since 2019, Saab has presented for Australia’s national ABC News channel, appearing as an evening news anchor. She covered the worst of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.

Saab is often praised for her unique fashion style and was dubbed “the Dita Von Teese of Australian journalism and a goth Holly Golightly” by Patty Huntington (Harpers Bazaar), who said “fashion maverick Mariam Saab delivers her commentary with a side order of old Hollywood glamour”.