Randi Richardson

Reporter | Believer | Dreamer

Hello, hello : D

I’ve known since I was a kid that I wanted to be a reporter.

I knew when I rushed home after school every day to tell my mom everything that happened, priding myself in providing word-for-word detail of who said or did what. I didn’t know then that I was summarizing and attributing, pillars of journalism. It ended up being a prophetic routine.

I knew when the Flint Water Crisis hit my hometown in 2014 that I wanted to tell people-centered stories regarding how structural racism impacts daily living.

I knew when Colin Kaepernick protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem at his NFL games in 2016 that I wanted to cover race relations across different industries with a focus on how the Black community is impacted.

So, I earned bachelor’s degrees in Africana Studies and Modern Culture and Media from Brown University in 2020 and joined NBC News in an entry level role a few months after graduating.

Me and my family on a road trip to move me into my college dorm.

I’ve been a .com reporter for NBC News and TODAY for about three and a half years now. I primarily cover trending news across different beats with a focus on entertainment and pop culture. My dream is to be an on-air reporter covering racial disparities across different industries.

My first year at NBC, I covered politics and how structural racism impacts the Black community. I live blogged the Capitol insurrection and the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. I also covered COVID-19 vaccinations, policing, housing, higher education and legislation.

For the last two or so years, I’ve been at TODAY.com primarily covering lifestyle and pop culture. A chunk of my role is conducting celebrity interviews and so far I’ve interviewed Usher, Chaka Khan, Morris Chestnut, Jennifer Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Angela Bassett, Iyanla Vanzant, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Audra McDonald and others. I also pick up trending news of the day, such as viral social media moments or big announcements.

In between all of that, I workout, ride horses and do puzzles. I love all things Jesus, joy and justice. I’m a fanatic (OK, ridiculous) karaoke singer.

Top row from left to right: Chance the Rapper, Keke Palmer, Chaka Khan, Morris Chestnut and Jon Batiste. Bottom row: Tracee Ellis Ross, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Quinta Brunson.

My approach

My approach to reporting is twofold: Doubling down on original reporting that viewers can only find on the platforms I contribute to and using different formats or types of packaging to break through the oversaturated field of online content.

To execute this goal, I keep my thumb on the pulse of culture and use my news judgment to decide what I’ll cover and what’s the best coverage angle. I then research and report out the topic and I think about what type of packaging would make my scrolling thumb stop. I land on a format from there. I learned this approach while at NBC News, where I also learned the hard skills needed to produce impactful journalism. Mastering the hard skills (writing quick, clean copy, forming hard-hitting questions, editing news packages, fact-checking, finding and landing interviews and obtaining documents), has prepared me to take the next step in my career.

Reported with Randi Richardson

My dream of being an on-air reporter became a reality when I launched my own Instagram news show, Reported with Randi Richardson, in September 2022. I started it out of ambition and passion to cover people-centered stories. In my reports, I brought to life my two-pronged approach in video. For example, I used primary sources to explain how the College Board may go about adjusting its Advanced Placement African American studies course in a way that Florida would accept after the state previously rejected it. Another example is when I recorded myself walking home amid Canadian wildfire smoke that reached New York City and the eastern region of the U.S., reporting a first-person account of how I experienced the poor air quality. Additional formats and types of packages I’ve done are MOS interviews (attendees of Beyonce’s “Renaissance” concert describing their experience and reactions to the Philadelphia Eagles competing in the 2023 Super Bowl) and experts interviews (concurrent Hollywood strikes and SCOTUS’ decision on student loan debt cancellation).