Ziya Tong is a television personality and producer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is of Chinese and Macedonian descent, and was born in London, England and later lived in Hong Kong.
Tong moved from Hong Kong to Canada when she was 11.
Tong received her B.A. degree from the University of British Columbia in psychology and sociology. At McGill University, she graduated with an
M.S. in communications and also majored in psychology. Afterwards, she worked as a reporter, and as a Senior Producer for the news-portal
Orientation Global Networks in New York.
Tong began hosting the
CBC Television series
ZeD in the 2004-05 season, succeeding Sharon Lewis. For this, she was nominated for a
Gemini Award for Viewer's Choice for Lifestyle Host in 2005.
After ZeD, Tong moved to
CTV to host the new television series Island Escapes, which premiered on January 6, 2006. Critic Denise Duguay called her a "lively and game travel host". In this position, she visited many exotic island locations, and highlighted the attractions of places such as New Caledonia, Bedarra Island and Fiji.
Starting in January, 2007 she worked as a host and producer for two science shows,
Wired Science on
PBS[2] and The Leading Edge, a Canadian science series on The Knowledge Network.
Tong has also written for Wired magazine and blogs on the Wired Science site for PBS. She is currently shooting for the new season of
NOVA on PBS. After joining Discovery Channel's Daily Planet as a guest host for November and December 2008, she was named the new permanent co-host of the daily science program.
Career timeline
2006: "Island Escape" host
2008-9:
NOVA in production
