Michael Holmes is an award-winning anchor and correspondent for CNN International based at the network's headquarters in Atlanta.

Holmes, who has been in journalism for nearly four decades, co-anchors CNN Today with Amara Walker between 5-8p ET / 5-8a HKT. He also fills in regularly as anchor of the Amanpour program.

Holmes, who joined CNNI in 1996 as the first Australian anchor for the network, has reported extensively from all corners of the globe including Asia, Europe, the Middle East, India, Nepal, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He has covered the war in Iraq from the very beginning, making more than a dozen trips there - some for weeks at a time. He has reported on all aspects of the war including the insurgency and occupation to the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. In January 2004 he survived an ambush on a two-vehicle CNN convoy which left two CNN staff members dead and one wounded.

Most recently Holmes spent several weeks in Iraq covering the Iraqi-led offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS. His reporting contributed to a 2016 Peabody Award for CNN, recognizing the networks' coverage on the Battle for Mosul, ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Undercover in Syria.

In March 2016 he reported from Brussels following the deadly terror attacks at the Zaventum airport and Maelbeek metro station. For several days Holmes covered Belgium's response to these ISIS attacks, even securing an exclusive interview with a family member of Belgian jihadist Hicham Chaib.

In 2015 Holmes anchored CNN's breaking news coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris, which was recognized with a 2016 Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for 'Best Breaking News Coverage.'

Holmes has spent much of his career covering the world's hotspots including Ukraine, where he anchored live from Kiev on the riots and Crimean referendum, as well as Libya, where he spent several weeks with Libyan rebels as they advanced from the western mountains and covered the at-times fierce fighting in several towns and cities.

He has also reported from Afghanistan on several occasions, spending weeks with U.S. and Afghan troops on the battlefield.

In 2007, CNN's award-winning documentary On Assignment: Month of Mayhem revealed a behind-the-scenes look at Holmes reporting in Iraq during what would later become one of the bloodiest months since the war started in 2003.

In April 2002 he was one of the few journalists reporting from Ramallah during the Israeli incursion, and despite Israeli gunfire, secured an exclusive interview with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat inside his besieged headquarters during a highly dangerous period in the West Bank. That was just one of the many exclusives Holmes had from the region, seeing violence on both sides of that conflict.

As an anchor, he has interviewed prime ministers and presidents of several nations, anchored countless live events and breaking news stories from around the world and served as host and moderator at several CNN special events including Future Summit and Principal Voices.

Before joining CNNI, Holmes worked for Australia's Nine Network, and was one of the few Australian journalists to cover firsthand the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

He was based in London for four years as the network's European correspondent for current affairs, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Palestinian intifada, Northern Ireland and the start of the first Gulf War. His reports in Bucharest during the miners' uprising in 1990 earned him an Australian Television Society Award for Coverage of a Current Affairs Story.

After working in newspapers for nearly five years, he began his television career in 1982 with the Nine Network in Perth. He also has worked for several British media outlets, including WTN, The Observer newspaper and TV-AM.

He began his career at the age of 17, as a cub reporter with the Daily News, an afternoon newspaper in Perth.