Inaya Folarin Iman: The British-Nigerian Journalist Who Founded The Equiano Project

Inaya Folarin Iman was born in November 1996 in London, grew up in Kent, studied Arabic and International Relations at the University of Leeds, changed her name at 18, ran as a Brexit Party candidate in Leeds North East in 2019, founded The Equiano Project in 2020, presented on GB News, became a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze, was appointed as a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, and is now a reporter for CBS News based in London. She is 29 in 2026. That biography is more varied and more interesting than almost anything her Wikipedia page conveys – which is why people keep searching for the details it leaves out.

The most searched questions about her are her age, her religion, whether she is still on GB News, and who funds her. This article answers all of them.

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Inaya Folarin Iman – Quick Facts	Details
Full Name	Inaya Folarin Iman
Date of Birth	8 November 1996
Age (2026)	29
Born	London (Tooting, South London)
Raised	Kent, England
Heritage	British-Nigerian, Yoruba
Upbringing	Single-parent household with mother and sister
Education	Leeds University – Arabic and International Relations
Founded	The Equiano Project (2020)
Current role	CBS News reporter, London
Former role	GB News presenter
BBC	Regular panellist, BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze
Religion	Agnostic (not Muslim – frequently searched)
National Portrait Gallery	Trustee (appointed 2021)
Name change	Changed her name at age 18
Wikipedia	Exists but limited on key searched facts

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Early Life and Background

Inaya Folarin Iman was born in November 1996 in Tooting, South London, to parents of Nigerian heritage. She grew up in Kent with her mother and sister in a single-parent household – a biographical detail she has discussed publicly and that informs her emphasis on individual agency and self-determination in her political commentary. Her Yoruba heritage is part of her public identity, and she has spoken about growing up as a second-generation immigrant navigating British identity and Nigerian cultural roots simultaneously.

She attended a private boarding school in Hertfordshire for the first two years of secondary school before returning to Kent for the rest of her education. At 18 she changed her name – the name Inaya Folarin Iman is the name she has used publicly throughout her adult career.

She studied Arabic and International Relations at the University of Leeds, spending four years learning Arabic and developing the analytical framework that underlies her commentary on race, identity, and political theory. Leeds was also where she encountered the campus left-wing culture that she later described as a formative influence on her political direction – not because it confirmed her views, but because it challenged her to develop them.

The Equiano Project

Inaya Folarin Iman founded The Equiano Project in 2020, naming it after Olaudah Equiano, the 18th-century abolitionist and freed slave whose autobiography became one of the most important documents of the abolitionist movement. The choice of name is deliberate: Equiano represents a vision of human freedom and dignity that is not reducible to race politics or victimhood narratives.

The project describes itself as a debate, discussion and ideas forum focused on race, culture, and politics. Its events bring together thinkers, writers, and policymakers to discuss questions of national identity, integration, and liberal democracy. The founding impulse, as Folarin Iman has described it, was the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 – not opposition to the movement’s stated goals, but resistance to the claim that all Black and ethnic minority people in Britain shared a single political perspective defined by systemic racism.

“We were being told that all black or ethnic minority people felt that Britain was a fundamentally racist society,” she said in an interview. “That was just not true.”

The Equiano Project is the work that most defines her public profile and the entity most people are searching for when they find her name.

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Inaya Folarin Iman – Career Timeline	Details
2015–2019	Leeds University – Arabic and International Relations
2019	Brexit Party candidate – Leeds North East general election
2019–2020	Index on Censorship – Free Speech Is For Me programme
2020	Founded The Equiano Project
2021	Joined GB News as presenter – hosted The Discussion
September 2021	Appointed Trustee, National Portrait Gallery
2022–present	BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze – regular panellist
2025	Judge, Baillie Gifford Prize
2025	Featured in Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd documentary
2026	CBS News reporter, London
2026	“Why I’m Not a Victim” video – 12M views on X in one week

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Is She Still on GB News?

No – Folarin Iman is no longer a presenter at GB News. She hosted shows there including The Discussion, but has since moved on. As of 2026 she is a reporter for CBS News based in London, a significant step up in terms of international reach and audience. She continues to appear as a commentator and panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze and other outlets, but her day-to-day role is at CBS News.

Is She Muslim?

This is one of the most frequently searched questions about her, driven by her name – Inaya is an Arabic name meaning care or concern – and her study of Arabic at university. The answer, based on her own public statements, is no. Folarin Iman describes herself as agnostic. She grew up around evangelical Christian communities, came to Islam primarily through academic study rather than religious practice, and has never identified as a Muslim. Her study of Arabic was academic, not religious.

The Identity Politics Question

Folarin Iman’s position in British public debate is distinctive because she is a Black British woman who argues against the framework of systemic racism and critical race theory from a position of personal experience rather than theoretical opposition. She does not argue that racism does not exist – she argues that the political framework built around it, particularly in institutions like the NHS and universities, does more harm than good to the communities it claims to represent.

Her viral video “Why I’m Not a Victim,” which reached 12 million views on X within a week in 2026, encapsulates this position: that the narrative of collective victimhood assigned to Black and minority ethnic communities in Britain is both empirically contested and actively harmful to individual agency and social cohesion.

Her critics argue that her positions provide cover for those who want to ignore genuine racial inequality. Her supporters argue that she is one of the few voices willing to challenge orthodoxies on race from inside the communities those orthodoxies claim to speak for.

Both arguments are documented here. Readers can examine her actual work – her Substack, her Equiano Project events, her BBC Moral Maze appearances – and reach their own conclusions.

Personal Life

Folarin Iman keeps her personal life private. No confirmed partner or relationship has been publicly disclosed. She has mentioned foraging for wild food, herbs, and mushrooms as a hobby – an unexpectedly pastoral detail for someone whose public profile is defined by intellectual combat on the most contested questions in British public life.

Net Worth

Her income sources include her CBS News salary, The Equiano Project activities, freelance journalism in The Telegraph, The Times, and UnHerd, speaking fees, and Substack subscriptions. No verified net worth figure has been published.

Inaya Folarin Iman was born in November 1996 in South London, raised in Kent by a Nigerian single mother, studied Arabic at Leeds, founded The Equiano Project at 23, and is now a CBS News reporter at 29 – a biography that most people searching her name cannot find in one place.