Zakia is a broadcaster, writer and DJ from London with a passion for music, arts, mental health and history.

She regularly produces and presents radio documentaries and podcasts for platforms including BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Tate, and Boiler Room and has explored a wide range of topics, from Caribbean ancestral drumming, to schizophrenia and intergenerational trauma, to improvisation in the arts.

Alongside audio production, Zakia is an enthusiastic and respected collector and sharer of music. As a radio-host, Zakia presents her widely popular 'Dream Time' show on BBC Radio 6 Music, where each week she transports her listeners to different spaces and places with music to ease the mind and lift the spirits. Previously, Zakia hosted her beloved and long-standing 'Questing' show on NTS Radio. As a DJ, Zakia has performed at esteemed clubs and festivals in London and abroad, including the likes of HORST BE, Dekmantel Selectors HR, Printworks UK, Ortigia Sound System IT, Dimensions Festival HR, We Out Here UK, GALA UK, Berlin Atonal DE, Blå NO, Sun Cycle AUS and Le Guess Who? NL.

Zakia regularly leads radio workshops offering advice and support to aspiring radio makers and has worked on creative research projects with archives and arts institutions such as Timespan, the Stuart Hall Library and the George Padmore institute.

Adding another accolade to her growing list, Zakia is currently working hard on her first full-length book, ‘Finding Albion’, set to be published on the esteemed Hodder Press in Spring 2026. 'Finding Albion' follows on from the themes explored in her widely acclaimed BBC Radio 4 documentary 'My Albion', seeing Zakia continue her explorations into mythology, music, folk culture and national identity.

While her two worlds of music and journalism may seem to exist separately, her intelligence and creativity span both of these spheres, and often these seemingly disparate worlds intermix and feed into one another, making Zakia one of the most unique DJs and cultural personalities around.

In the moments when Zakia isn’t doing any of the above, you’ll find her singing, playing guitar, taking long walks in nature and reading esoteric books about pagans.