Mahyar Tousi: The Iranian Refugee Who Built the UK’s Most Watched Independent News Channel

In February 2026, when news broke that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed in joint US-Israeli aerial strikes, nearly one million people turned to a single livestream to follow the story in real time. The broadcaster they chose was not the BBC, not Sky News, not CNN International. It was Mahyar Tousi, a British-Iranian political commentator broadcasting from his independent platform Tousi TV, who had spent over a decade building the audience and the credibility that made him the trusted voice for a moment of historic scale.

“Every single minute of my 37 years in this world was to fight for freedom,” Tousi told his viewers as the news unfolded, a statement that was not rhetorical flourish but biographical fact. He left Iran at the age of 14, came to Britain as a refugee, studied accounting, worked as an accountant, and built one of the most-watched independent news channels in the United Kingdom without the backing of a television network, a political party, or a media conglomerate. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism ranked him fourth among the most mentioned individuals for news on social and video networks in the UK. He has 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and growing. Wikipedia, characteristically, has spent years arguing about how to categorise him rather than simply recording what he has done.

This is the full biography.

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Mahyar Tousi — Quick Facts	Details
Full Name	Mahyar Tousi
Date of Birth	June 11, 1988
Age (2026)	37
Birthplace	Tehran, Iran
Moved to UK	2003 (aged 14)
Raised in	Lewisham, London
Religion	Atheist
Nationality	British
Education	Manchester Metropolitan University — BA Hons Accounting and Finance
Channel	Tousi TV (launched 2013)
YouTube subscribers	1.5 million+
Reuters Institute ranking	#4 most mentioned for news on social/video networks (UK)
Political history	Conservative Party candidate — Lee Green 2014, Canning Town South 2018
Partner	Danielle Millie (engaged, confirmed on social media)
Net worth estimate	$2.5–3 million (Net Worth Spot, 2026)
Social media	X: @MahyarTousi

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From Tehran to Lewisham

Mahyar Tousi was born on June 11, 1988, in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His family left the country when he was 14, fleeing political persecution by the Iranian regime, and settled in Lewisham in south-east London, where Tousi grew up and attended local schools before going on to university.

The circumstances of that departure are central to everything Tousi has done since. He watched his mother make the decision to leave her country, her language, and her home because the alternative was to live under a regime that controlled what citizens could think, say, and believe. That experience gave him a reference point for authoritarianism that is not theoretical but personal, and it shapes his commentary in ways that are visible every time he discusses Iran, free speech, or the behaviour of governments toward their citizens.

He is not Muslim. This is a fact he has addressed directly in his public work, because his Iranian background leads many viewers to assume otherwise. His family are not practising Muslims, and Tousi describes himself as an atheist. The assumption that all Iranians are Muslim is itself one of the misconceptions he challenges in his commentary on how Britain understands the Iranian population.

The Accountant Who Became a Broadcaster

After finishing secondary school in Lewisham, Tousi studied Accounting and Finance at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating with a BA Hons degree. His career after graduation was not in media. He worked as an accountant at IRIS Software for three years, then as a Partner Manager at Quandoo in the UK, and then as an account manager at InfoTrack UK. These are not the jobs that appear in most profiles of political commentators.

The transition happened gradually. Tousi launched Tousi TV on YouTube in 2013, initially as a side project alongside his corporate career. His early videos focused on UK politics, particularly Brexit — he was an early and vocal supporter of Leave and built an initial following among viewers who wanted someone making the pro-Brexit case in direct, non-academic language. By 2018 he had left corporate employment entirely and was running Tousi TV as his primary occupation.

His political involvement during this period was not only digital. He stood as a Conservative Party candidate in the Lee Green ward of Lewisham in 2014, and again in Canning Town South in 2018. Neither candidacy was successful, but both placed him inside the formal political process in a way that informs how he now covers it from the outside.

Tousi TV: Building the UK’s Most Watched Independent News Channel

Tousi TV grew through consistent output, a willingness to cover stories that mainstream broadcasters approached cautiously, and a direct relationship with an audience that felt underserved by existing political coverage. By 2026 the channel had 1.5 million subscribers and had been ranked fourth by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism among the most mentioned individuals for news on social and video networks in Britain.

That ranking places him ahead of many journalists employed by national newspapers and broadcasters who have been working in the industry for decades longer than he has. The Reuters Institute ranking measures actual audience engagement with his content as a news source, not just follower counts or impression numbers. It means that when news happens, a significant portion of the British news audience turns to Tousi TV.

His coverage expanded significantly from domestic UK politics to international affairs, driven largely by events in Iran and the Middle East. His personal connection to Iran — his family history, his cultural and linguistic knowledge, his network of contacts inside the country — gave him sources and credibility on Iranian affairs that generalist correspondents could not match. When protests erupted inside Iran, when the regime cracked down, when negotiations with Western governments stalled, Tousi was broadcasting analysis that his audience found more reliable than the official diplomatic language of mainstream foreign correspondents.

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Tousi TV vs Mainstream UK Media
Metric	Tousi TV
YouTube subscribers	1.5 million+
Reuters Institute ranking	#4 for news mentions on social/video networks
Khamenei breaking news viewership	~1 million concurrent viewers (February 2026)
Funding model	YouTube ad revenue, sponsorships, merchandise
Editorial independence	No network ownership, no political party funding
Broadcast appearances	ITV News, Al Jazeera, TalkRadio, Express
Political candidacy history	Conservative candidate 2014, 2018

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The G20 Clothing Controversy

Tousi became the subject of an international incident in 2022 when he posted a video commenting on the clothing worn by world leaders at the G20 summit, including Indonesia’s Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan in traditional Indonesian dress, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and WEF founder Klaus Schwab. The video was widely shared and prompted a significant reaction from Indonesian social media users, with the Indonesian government seeking an apology. The incident drew millions of additional viewers to his channel from audiences who had not previously been aware of him, and it remains one of the most frequently searched events associated with his name.

The Mossad Question and How He Addresses It

Because of his strongly anti-Iran regime positions and his vocal support for Israel’s right to defend itself, Tousi has faced persistent accusations from critics that he is a Mossad asset or operates in coordination with Israeli intelligence services. He has addressed this directly and with characteristic directness in multiple interviews.

“One of the nicknames people who don’t like me use is ‘Jewci,'” Tousi told the outlet Unpacked. “They’re using it as an insult. I’m not a Jew. But what if I was a Jew?” He went on to describe how the accusations around his coverage had evolved from “it’s just the Israeli government” to “just the Zionists” to, increasingly, broader antisemitic framing — a pattern he described as the mask slipping on what was never purely political criticism.

He has stated that when he first became prominent, some people joked about the Mossad connection, but that most of his audience now understands he is a journalist with a personal history that explains his positions without requiring a conspiracy theory to account for them.

Personal Life

Tousi announced his engagement to Danielle Millie on social media, making her the confirmed partner in his personal life. He has otherwise kept his family relationships private, consistent with his general practice of not discussing his parents by name or sharing details of his domestic arrangements. His mother’s decision to leave Iran is a reference point he has discussed publicly, but always in broad terms rather than biographical specifics.

As one of the most prominent voices covering Iranian politics and geopolitics for a British audience, Tousi sits at the intersection of the UK political commentary scene and the international news cycle — tracking both makes political betting on UK and global outcomes particularly relevant. These are the top-rated licensed bookmakers currently operating in the UK and Ireland:

What People Search For

The most common searches around Tousi follow the standard pattern for public figures whose Wikipedia page is contested rather than comprehensive. His age — 37 in 2026, born June 11, 1988 — is one of the most searched facts, partly because he does not look his age and partly because his level of achievement makes people question whether the biographical timeline is correct. It is.

His wife or girlfriend is searched because Tousi kept his personal life private for years before announcing his engagement to Danielle Millie. His net worth is searched because viewers curious about how a YouTuber sustains a full international news operation want to understand the economics. The estimate of $2.5 to $3 million reflects YouTube ad revenue on a 1.5 million subscriber channel with high engagement, supplemented by sponsorships and merchandise.

His height, which appears in search suggestions, has not been publicly confirmed by Tousi. He is tall by normal visual comparison but has never addressed the specific question.

Net Worth

Tousi’s income comes from YouTube advertising revenue on Tousi TV, which with 1.5 million subscribers and high view counts generates substantial monthly income. He supplements this with sponsorships, a merchandise operation, and speaking fees. Net Worth Spot estimates his net worth at $2.6 million as of 2026, with other industry estimates ranging up to $6.5 million depending on the methodology used. No verified figure has been disclosed by Tousi himself.

Mahyar Tousi left Tehran at 14, studied accounting in Manchester, worked as a corporate account manager, and built the fourth most mentioned news voice on UK social and video networks — all without a television contract, a political party’s money, or a Wikipedia page that anyone agrees on.