Sarita Harilela is a Director of Coverage for CNN International, based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. She is responsible for news coverage from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as leading the network’s global coverage for key parts of the day.

In her previous role as an Executive Producer, Harilela led all production in Asia including news, feature programming and planning. She has been heavily involved in all major news stories from the Asia-Pacific region over the last decade including the pandemic, the Hong Kong protests, Typhoon Haiyan and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. She has also produced a large and diverse portfolio of feature shows over the years.

Harilela started as an intern with CNN International in 2001 and took up a fulltime position as a writer in 2004. She has held various positions at CNN including producing news and feature shows, and executing planning and breaking news coverage for major stories such as the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, missing Malaysian airliner MH370, the Mumbai Bombings and the 2004 Asian Tsunami. She has also been involved with some of CNN’s big field coverage operations including the Royal Wedding of William and Kate in 2011 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Harilela has been recognized multiple times for her work. She served as Executive Producer for CNN’s ‘News Stream’, which in 2018 was awarded Best News Program at the Asia Academy Creative Awards. In 2013, she was part of the team that won the highly coveted Best International News Coverage prize at the Royal Television Society Awards for coverage of Typhoon Haiyan. In 2012, she was part of the team that was awarded an Emmy for the network’s coverage of the Egypt revolution. In 2006 she produced CNN Today which was awarded Best News Program at the Asian Television Awards, and in 2005 she was part of the team that was recognized with a Peabody Award for coverage of the Asian Tsunami.

Harilela is originally from Hong Kong but grew up in Thailand and moved to the U.S. for university where she graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.