Leila Rahimi is an American television sports anchor and reporter.

Biography

Rahimi was born and raised in Denton, Texas.^[1] After high school, she interned with Dallas Mavericks announcers Wally Lynn and Mike Fisher.^[1] In 2002, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Texas with a degree in journalism.^[2][3] From 2001 to 2005, she worked as an anchor/reporter with KTCK-AM Sports Radio in Dallas. In 2006,^[1] she went to work as a sports anchor/reporter with CBS-affiliate KXII-TV in Sherman, Texas. She held various positions at Fox Sports Southwest in Dallas from 2001 to 2011.^[2] In 2007, she accepted a position with NBC-affiliate KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas.^[2] In 2012, she moved to San Diego to work for Fox Sports San Diego where she served as the field reporter for the San Diego Padres and produced a weekly program.^[2] She then returned to Texas, working at Comcast SportsNet Houston as an anchor, reporter, and sideline reporter for the Houston Astros and the Houston Rockets; while in Houston, she was nominated for several Emmy awards.^[2] In 2014 and 2015, Rahimi worked with the MLB Network while in Philadelphia and was an anchor and reporter for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.^[2] In October 2015, she was hired as the anchor for NBC Sports Chicago,^[2] where she, as of the 2019-20 season, serves as the sideline reporter for Chicago Bulls broadcasts and hosted White Sox pre-game and post-game shows. In August 2020, Rahimi was laid off from NBC Sports Chicago as part of company-wide cutbacks at NBCUniversal due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.^[4]

In January 2021 Rahimi was announced as a partner to long-time WSCR host Dan Bernstein on a new mid-day show dubbed "Bernstein and Rahimi".^[5] She has since continued contributing to WSCR, making appearances on the "Bernstein and Holmes Show" (often referred to as "Leila Wednesdays") and guest hosting for Laurence Holmes, a longtime contributor to the station.

A year after she was laid off from NBC Sports Chicago, Rahimi returned to the NBCUniversal family in November as a part-time sports anchor and reporter for NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV. She currently rotating their duties alongside Mike Berman and Jeff Blanzy in the station's weeknight newscasts, and currently co-hosting with Berman on the weekly sports news program Sports Sunday, replacing their longtime main sports anchor Siafa Lewis, when he was hired by CBS-owned station KYW-TV as weekday news anchor in the same month. Rahimi was second female co-host of Sports Sunday, behind Paula Faris.^[6]

As of the 2023-24 season, Rahimi has returned to sideline reporting duties for select Bulls home broadcasts on NBC Sports Chicago.^[7]