George Kiriyama

California native George Kiriyama traveled around the country as a television reporter for more than nine years before returning home to California in 2006 to report for NBC Bay Area.

George began his broadcasting career in Midland/Odessa, Texas. From there, his career took him north to Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, Michigan. During his four years in Michigan, he was honored by the Michigan Associated Press for his individual reporting and received an honorable mention from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters for his series "Surviving the Economic Slowdown."  He spent four years as a general assignment reporter in Kansas City, Missouri before coming back to California to join NBC Bay Area.

George was nominated for an Emmy in 2008 for his role in the NBC Bay Area Documentary “Dreams To Dust: Americans Interned.” In that program about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, he interviewed members of his family who survived the internment camps. He was nominated for a second Emmy in 2010 for his LIVE reporting during a downtown Oakland riot sparked by anger over the New Year’s Day shooting death of Oscar Grant.

George is very active in the Asian American Journalists Association serving as the National Vice President for Broadcast. In 2007, he was named “AAJA Member of the Year.”

George graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1994 and was inducted into the school’s “Wall Of Fame” in 2006.
 
When he is not in front of the camera, George enjoys playing tennis, reading, traveling, dancing, swimming and dining out. In addition to his passion for history and politics, he is an avid sports enthusiast.  George appreciates being able to visit his family more often now that he is back in California.

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