Tova O'Brien

O’Brien was born in Papua New Guinea. Her mother, a British journalist, and her father, a New Zealand helicopter pilot, had met while working in the country. When O'Brien was six months old, the family moved to New Zealand. Her parents separated when she was three and O'Brien was raised by her mother in Wellington.[1]

After high school, she started a degree at the University of Otago in film and psychology. She did not complete the degree, instead going overseas to work in Melbourne and London in hospitality. In 2006 she decided to train as a journalist and completed a qualification at Massey University. Her first journalism role after graduating was at Radio Active in Wellington.[1]

O'Brien was a reporter in the parliamentary press gallery in Wellington before joining MediaWorks New Zealand in 2007.

In 2016 she was assigned the role of European correspondent for Newshub, the news division of MediaWorks. In 2018, she returned to Wellington and became Newshub's political editor,[2] succeeding Patrick Gower. Her style of journalism, according to Gower, is "edgy", and she attracts a lot of criticism due to her high profile.[4]

In October 2020, O'Brien's interview with Jami-Lee Ross, co-leader of the Advance New Zealand party, garnered 7 million views. She was internationally praised by journalists for preventing Ross from mentioning conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic during the interview.[5][6][7]

In November 2021, Mediaworks, O’Brien’s former employer, rehired her to host the breakfast radio show on new talk station Today FM.

She left Discovery and her role at Newshub in January 2022, prior to the launch of Today FM, which launched on 21 March 2022.[8]

O'Brien had appealed against a restraint of trade clause in her Discovery contract, which prevented her from joining Mediaworks for three months. But the Employment Relations Authority rejected her case and ordered O'Brien to pay $2,000 for breaching her employment agreement.[9]

On 30 March 2023, Today FM ceased broadcasting, shortly after O'Brien interrupted the mid-morning Duncan Garner Today show to announce the station's closure, with O'Brien quipping "They have fucked us."[10]

O'Brien and Garner, who had addressed the station's future during the 'Tova' breakfast show, continued to criticise station owners Mediaworks until the show was abruptly taken off air and replaced by automated music.[11] The station's closure was confirmed later that day.

On 19 July 2023, it was announced that O'Brien would be joining New Zealand news publishing firm Stuff Digital as its chief political correspondent.[12]

On 12 August 2023, after an article written by O'Brien about the National Party's election strategy was published, National Party MP Chris Penk made an online comment "Sorry but your poor ratings crashed an entire radio station." Christopher Luxon said the comment was "insensitive and inappropriate" because many people lost their jobs when Today FM closed. Penk apologised for the comment.[13]

In 2019, O'Brien won the award for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.[4][14] The citation read:[15]

Courageous, tenacious, O'Brien wielded considerable influence on the 2018 political scene with her scoops, as a good member of the fourth estate should. She leads from the lip and is not put off by those who would have her silenced. A true political muckraker.

O'Brien married Nathan "Nato" Hickey in 2016 in London; they had known each other since 2006 from Wellington.[1] Hickey is a drummer for the Wellington heavy metal band Beastwars.[16]

• Tova O'Brien interviews Jami-Lee Ross after Advance NZ's 2020 election loss on YouTube