John Campbell

John James Campbell (born 10 February 1964) is a New Zealand journalist and radio and television personality. He is currently a presenter and reporter at TVNZ; before that, he presented Checkpoint, Radio New Zealand's drive time show, from 2016 to 2018. For ten years prior to that (ending May 2015), he presented Campbell Live, a current affairs programme on TV3. He was a rugby commentator for Sky Sports during the All Blacks' test against Samoa in early 2015 — a fixture he had vocally campaigned for while hosting Campbell Live. Early and personal life Campbell was born in 1964; his parents are Jim and Wendy Campbell. He graduated from Wellington College and then from Victoria University with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in English Literature. Campbell is married to documentary editor Emma Patterson. The couple have two children. Broadcasting career Campbell started broadcasting at Victoria University's Radio Active as a student where, as "Sparky Plug", he provided humorous "alternative rugby commentaries" during All Black games which he now describes as "unbelievably rude" and "grossly defamatory." He then worked as a share trader, providing a share report to Radio New Zealand's Midday Report. In 1989, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) offered him a job as a business reporter. He had no journalism training, but RNZ ran a cadetship system which provided him with the experience he needed. He read the three-minute news bulletins on the hour for RNZ, and then moved to TV3 in 1991 as a general reporter in their Wellington newsroom. He moved to their political press gallery a year later.