Emma currently co-presents Britain's Lost Masterpieces on BBC4 and Virtually History on YouTube Originals, a ground-breaking new series which uses virtual reality technology to re-live dramatic events in history.

Emma has previously presented Back in Time for Brixton and the Back in Time Confectioners series (BBC Two), Is Love Racist? (Channel 4) and has done a number of social history films for The One Show (BBC). In 2020 Emma presented the Channel 4 documentary Hair Power: My Afro and Me, in which she explored hair's extraordinary history.

On radio she has hosted BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review and Front Row. She has authored a landmark Radio 4 documentary, Journeys in Afrofuturism as well as EXPOSED: Young Female Photographers which explores the work of three exciting, emerging photographers. Both are available on BBC Sounds. She is also developing a documentary on Haitian Surrealism.

Emma's debut book Don’t Touch My Hair was published in 2019. Emma is currently on the judging panel for the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize 2020-2021 founded by Stormzy, which aims to discover unpublished, under-represented writers aged 16-30 from the UK and Ireland. During lockdown in spring 2020 Emma founded Disobedient Bodies, a virtual space and book club that celebrates and encourages disobedience. She has interviewed women like Booker Prize nominee Kiley Reid and American Irish Dance sensation Morgan Bullock.

Her second book, What White People Can Do Next. From Allyship to Coalition, is due out this year.

She was a columnist for The Dublin Inquirer and is one of the BBC's Expert Voices. She has also had work published in a number of academic journals and newspapers. Emma's interdisciplinary work crosses African Studies, art, sociology, history, film, literature, theatre, popular culture and music. She is a teaching fellow in the Africa department at SOAS.

Emma gives regular talks and takes part on panels at festivals and arts venues and hosts a range of live events.

Instagram on @emmadabiri Twitter @EmmaDabiri