Rudabeh Shahbazi

Rudabeh Shahbazi is a three-time Emmy award winning journalist and anchor on KCAL mornings from 6 to 10 a.m.  

Shahbazi returns to Southern California from Chicago, where she was one of the original national correspondents and anchors on NewsNation.  While there, she covered numerous national stories, including President Biden's inauguration from Delaware, the George Floyd and Jacob Blake cases and subsequent protests in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Surfside condo collapse in Florida, and deadly tornadoes in Kentucky, as well as features about the newest national park in West Virginia, a musician commune in Nashville and profiles of women-owned businesses spanning Missouri, Indiana and Chicago.

Shahbazi served as the main anchor at CBS Miami for five years, where she anchored live continuous coverage of the Pulse nightclub and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport shootings, the Parkland school massacre, Hurricanes Matthew, Irma and Maria, President Obama's visit to Cuba and the death of Fidel Castro. 

Shahbazi knows the streets of Southern California well from her time as a reporter and fill-in anchor at KABC-TV in Los Angeles.  Previously, she was a reporter at KNXV-TV in Phoenix, where she covered the US-Mexico border and was one of the first reporters on the ground in Tucson after the mass shooting and attempted assassination of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Shahbazi got her start on the air as an education reporter at KEPR-TV in Pasco, Washington, and worked behind the scenes at KTVU-TV in Oakland, California.  She also has a background in documentary filmmaking, working on the award-winning "King Leopold's Ghost," about Belgian rule in Congo, and from the Middle East, including a piece for PBS Frontline World about Iraqi refugees in Jordan shortly after the U.S. invasion.  She also has a decade of experience behind the camera as a photojournalist and editor in major markets across the country.

Shahbazi has a BA in journalism from Pepperdine University and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.