Born in Kenya and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Murad Velshi, an Indian business owner in Africa and then in Canada, and the first Indian-Canadian elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He is an Ismaili Muslim.
I am very careful not to wantonly encourage people to join my industry or aspire to work in TV. I am certain that, generally speaking, the wage pressure in the television news industry is downward. When I'm interviewing people I ask them two or three times 'Is this really something you want?' They have to know what they're getting into.