Briana Shepherd (born c. 1987[1][2]) is a Western Australian journalist, reporter, and news presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She has also worked as a model, ballet dancer and ballet teacher.
Shepard attended Perth Modern School.[3] In 2005,[3] at age 18, she joined the New York City Ballet, the first Australian to do so.[1] Her career as a ballet dancer was the cause of several fractured and broken bones.[1] She was one of several dancers laid off in 2009,[2] after which she returned to Perth.[1]
She has worked as a model for Vivien's Model Management.[1][3][4]
Shephard obtained a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in journalism and broadcasting, and a Graduate Certificate of Radio Broadcasting from Edith Cowan University, and began working for the ABC News Perth as journalist and reporter.[5] In 2016, she filled in for James McHale reading the news.[1] From August 2021 to June 2022[6] she presented the news on Friday-Sunday, while Charlotte Hamlyn was on maternity leave.[7]
Shepard is the granddaughter of Terri Charlesworth, one of West Australian Ballet's inaugural dancers, and founder of the Charlesworth Ballet Institute. Shepard is a guest teacher at the Institute.[8]
It's been my absolute pleasure having your company these past eleven months. Charlotte Hamlyn will be back with you tomorrow.
... my last bulletin for a little while. I'm off to give this motherhood thing a go.