The Gulf Coast humidity of Houston to the golden haze of Los Angeles, this journalist has lived more lives than most people dare to imagine and she’s not done yet. By Staff Writer · May 2026 · ABC7 / Broadcast Journalism
Picture someone who speaks Farsi on a Sunday, practices American Sign Language on Monday, plays piano on Tuesday, shows up on live television on Wednesday, and spends the weekend chasing stories about goats preventing California wildfires. That’s not a fictional character that’s Niku Kazori, and she’s very much real.
Quick Facts Niku Kazori
| Full Name | Niku Kazori |
| Hometown | Houston, Texas |
| High School | Cypress Ridge High School, Houston |
| University | University of St. Thomas, Houston |
| Major / Minor | Broadcast Journalism / Philosophy |
| Languages | English, Farsi, American Sign Language |
| Current Role | Reporter & Anchor, ABC7 Los Angeles (KABC) |
| Joined ABC7 | September 2024 |
| Cities Lived In | Houston · Lubbock · Charleston · Knoxville · San Antonio · Okinawa, Japan · Seattle · Los Angeles |
| Spouse | U.S. Air Force servicemember (name kept private) |
| Hobbies | Piano, Pilates, exploring local businesses, beach days |
| Spiritual Influence | Poet Rumi — philosophy of present-moment peace |
| Career Started | Lubbock, TX — weather anchor & reporter |
| Favorite Food | Sushi |
| Favorite Drink | Coffee, red wine |
| Pet | One beloved fur baby (breed undisclosed) |
| Instagram Followers | ~21,000 |
| Facebook Likes | ~11,500+ |
A Texas Girl With an Anywhere Spirit
Houston doesn’t raise shrinking violets. The city is loud, sprawling, humid, and completely unbothered by what the rest of the country thinks and if you pay attention, Niku Kazori carries that exact energy into every newsroom she walks into. Born and bred in the Bayou City, she attended Cypress Ridge High School before heading across town to the University of St. Thomas, where she studied broadcast journalism. But here’s where it gets interesting: she also minored in philosophy. Did you know that choice wasn’t accidental? It gave her something rare in the broadcast world the ability to sit with uncomfortable questions and not rush to fill the silence.
While still a student, she was already shadowing professionals at FOX 26 KRIV and KPRC 2. She wasn’t waiting for permission. She was building calluses. By the time she graduated, she wasn’t interviewing for her first job she was already choosing between opportunities. I was just referred to as the utility player and I loved it.”
Niku Kazori, on her time at KIRO 7 Seattle
Seven Cities. Zero Complaints.
Lubbock, Texas was her launchpad the kind of small market where you do everything: weather, reporting, interviews, and occasionally fixing your own mic pack between live shots. From there, she moved east to Charleston, South Carolina, where she continued as a weather anchor. Charleston is charming and slow, but Niku was moving at full speed.
Next came Knoxville, Tennessee, and then San Antonio where she leveled up into multimedia journalism, meaning she wasn’t just reading scripts. She was writing, shooting, and editing her own stories. Did you know that most anchors you see on television have entire crews behind them? Niku learned to be the crew herself. That kind of self-reliance doesn’t just build skills it builds character.
In 2020, something unexpected happened. She left her morning traffic anchor position in San Antonio not for a bigger market, but for a military base in Okinawa, Japan. Her then-fiancé had been stationed there with the U.S. Air Force, and she chose love over career momentum. That’s the part the résumé doesn’t tell you. Okinawa is a tiny island in the East China Sea, thousands of miles from any American television market. For most journalists, that would feel like career suicide. For Niku, it appears to have been fuel.
She came back to the mainland swinging. In March 2022, she joined KIRO 7 in Seattle a city famous for grey skies, strong coffee, and an unusually competitive news market. Within months, she went from reporter to traffic anchor to weather anchor to news anchor. Her colleagues called her the utility player. She called it home. And then, in August 2024, she announced she was leaving for something bigger: ABC7 Los Angeles.
The Big Move
Hollywood Calling She Picked Up
Landing at KABC isn’t luck. ABC7 Los Angeles is one of the most-watched local news stations in the entire country, covering a market of 18 million people, three major sports franchises, wildfire season, entertainment breaking news, and immigration stories all at the same time. When Niku stepped into that building in September 2024, she wasn’t a newcomer. She was a veteran of eight cities and roughly a decade of live broadcasting. She simply looked like she belonged.
Did you know she’s already covered everything from Supreme Court tariff rulings to goats preventing wildfires on Californian hillsides? That range from geopolitical consequence to quirky environmental storytelling is precisely what separates a good journalist from a great one. Niku seems equally at home with both.
The Person Behind the Camera
Farsi, Piano, and Rumi at Midnight
Strip away the camera and the press credentials and you find someone genuinely fascinating. Niku is fluent in Farsi a language that traces back to ancient Persia and today connects over 100 million people across Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. She’s also fluent in American Sign Language, which she didn’t learn for a story. She learned it because communicating with every part of a community actually matters to her.
She plays piano. She practices Pilates. She drags her dog on day trips and apparently has very specific opinions about sushi versus everything else on a menu. She describes herself as a fan of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi whose writing is less about romance and more about stripping away ego to find something real beneath. Her stated life philosophy? Enjoy the moment, spread love, and remain in peace. Did you know Rumi’s work is consistently among the bestselling poetry in the United States, despite being translated from a language most Americans don’t speak? Niku chose him deliberately.
Also More: Jean Muggli
Social Media & Public Image
On Instagram, Niku’s grid reads like a documentary series no one gave her a budget to make. She’s photographed in newsrooms, on location, in Japan, in Seattle rain, and under California sun. Her captions are warm without being gushing. She tags cities the way most people tag moods. Her audience follows her not just because she’s on television they follow her because she seems like someone worth knowing off-camera too.
Her public image is remarkably coherent for someone who has worked in eight different media markets. There’s no reinvention between cities just the same curious, energetic, community-obsessed person, getting sharper with each zip code. That kind of authenticity is either carefully constructed or completely natural. With Niku, it reads as the latter.
FAQs
1. Where is Niku Kazori from originally?
Houston, Texas specifically, she attended Cypress Ridge High School before studying at the University of St. Thomas in the same city.
2. What is Niku Kazori’s ethnicity or background?
While she hasn’t publicly labeled her ethnic background in detail, her fluency in Farsi and deep admiration for Persian poet Rumi strongly suggest Iranian or Persian heritage something she wears with quiet pride rather than as a headline.
3. How old is Niku Kazori?
She keeps her exact birth year private. Based on her career timeline college internships, a first broadcasting job, and roughly a decade of professional experience she appears to be in her mid-to-late thirties as of 2026.
4. Where does Niku Kazori work now?
She joined ABC7 Los Angeles (KABC) in September 2024 as a reporter for Eyewitness News and has been active covering California stories ever since.
Is Niku Kazori married?
Yes. She’s married to a U.S. Air Force servicemember. The couple lived in Okinawa, Japan together while he was stationed there she relocated her entire career around that commitment.
6 What languages does she speak?
Three: English, Farsi, and American Sign Language. The last two are not required for her job she learned them because she genuinely wanted to.
7. What did she study in college?
Broadcast Journalism as her major, with a minor in Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. She was also inducted into Lambda Pi Eta, the communications honor society for students with a GPA of 3.0 or above.