Diana Syarah is an Indonesian journalist and writer who once dreamed of becoming a kung fu master and chose something trickier: telling the truth on deadline. Over the past decade she has reported, produced, hosted, and written across broadcast and digital platforms—but the spine of her career is the page. Whether a 90-second script or a 3,000-word feature, she builds stories that move fast, land clean, and linger: precision first, flair never far behind.

Her writing sits at the intersection of reportage and narrative craft. She develops concepts, outlines, scripts, and long-form pieces; edits with a copy desk’s discipline; and chases clarity the way some people chase caffeine. She loves structure—leads that hook, nut grafs that actually carry weight, signposts that don’t patronise, and kickers that pay off. She writes for the ear and the eye, with pacing shaped by years of producing: voiceovers that carry, captions that add meaning, and questions that earn answers.

Diana cut her teeth at CNN Indonesia TV and Southeast Asia Today TV, working as a reporter, field producer, television host, and producer on everything from breaking news and politics to entertainment and culture. She wrote and hosted See Indonesia, an English-language travel programme that roamed the archipelago’s volcanic rims, dense forests, and crowded markets. The job demanded hybrid muscle: crafting scripts that threaded facts, texture, and a dash of cheek while collaborating with crews in the field under real-world constraints. That combination—tight reporting, visual thinking, and an on-air voice that knows when to get out of the way—still shapes her copy.

Her storytelling sense is grounded in an offbeat toolkit. A degree in French literature trained her ear for cadence, argument, and subtext. Years of acting and directing for theatre and cinema taught blocking, beats, and emotional economy—how to stage a moment so it reads without underlining it twice. In 2014 she directed a short film that won Best Comedy Short at the Forum Film Bandung and was later screened across Java and Bali, proof that her writing plays well on screens as well as on the page.

In 2023 she trained in Norway with SKUP, sharpening investigative instincts and methods—planning, source-mapping, and verification sturdy enough to withstand lawyers and comment sections alike. The experience deepened her appetite for accountability stories and broadened her toolkit for backgrounding, document work, and interview prep. She’s not a spy, but she does enjoy a good paper trail.

Today Diana works freelance with international and local outlets, comfortable filing in English or Indonesian and happiest when an assignment asks for both rigour and risk. She thrives in ambiguous briefs, tight timelines, and messy realities—the places where journalism still earns its name. Recent work ranges from on-air scripts and field pieces to reported features, essays, and treatment decks for factual series.

Areas of comfort: reported features and profiles; travel and culture pieces with a strong sense of place; explainers that de-jargonise policy; scripts and VOs for breaking news and packages; columns with a restrained, sly wink; newsletter strategy and writing; and collaborative edits that rescue drafts on life support. Strengths editors cite most: scene-building, sharp selection of detail, high-signal questions, and structural fixes that make a story breathe.

Call her a journalist if you like, but “storyteller” lands closer. She builds narratives that travel—across mediums, languages, and borders—and aims to leave the reader with one true thing they didn’t have before. If your project needs a writer who can report, a producer who can write, or a host who can carry a script that actually sings, she’s your mercenary Ivanhoe: loyal to the work, light on the bureaucracy, and always, always chasing the next clean line.