Hailing from the ‘Land Down Under’, Ali Rae is an Australian multimedia producer with Al Jazeera English in Doha, Qatar.

Her work is driven by the need to elevate alternative voices and give a global platform to stories that are not usually heard. But that’s not her only goal. Ali is a true believer in making stories relatable to a broad audience and finding the issues that connect us all.

“It’s about not ‘othering’ people. We all share common themes, we are all driven by similar emotions. We all understand the language of love, fear, hope and know how power operates.”

She often achieves this by undertaking a multidisciplinary approach to her storytelling and adapting stories for a variety of different social media platforms.

“For me, it’s not about making a story simplistic on social – it’s about but making them accessible. And I think that’s actually quite difficult. It’s easy to simplify a story, but you will lose context. How do you keep nuances and still make it relevant to someone living a completely different reality? That’s the challenge.”

She also likes to be prepared for as many situations as possible. It is not surprising to see her snapping breath-taking shots with her Canon, or using the latest tech to capture a story while also skillfully editing a video to match a tight deadline.

– Elizabeth Melimopoulos