Leila Rahimi

What is your name?
Leila Rahimi

What is your position?
Sports Reporter

When did you start at KXAN?
Nov. 6, 2007

What was your most memorable story?
Just this year, near Sherman, I had a story about a Little League football team coping with the death of their teammate, who was only 8 years old when he was killed in a car crash. The players had to learn lessons they were too young to learn, and even though they were just in elementary school, their sense of respect and understanding was amazing.

How did you get started in TV?
I am an avid Dallas Cowboys fan, and ever since the mid-90s, when they won their Super Bowls, I have wanted to be in sports journalism. At my high school, the newspaper was the closest I could get, and in college, I started interning in radio in Dallas as a freshman. Then when my university said I was old enough to intern, I started at Fox Sports Net Southwest, and it was a great experience, so I've stuck with it ever since.

Where did you go to college?
The University of North Texas. Go Mean Green.

Where is your hometown?
The home of the University of North Texas, Denton.

What's your favorite thing about Austin?
Unique people in a unique place with unique geography.

Who has been the most influential person in your life? Why?
My grandmother, who passed away in February 2006. She is a published author who wrote stories about life in Texas, and she always encouraged me to pursue writing and reporting. She was a strong-willed woman who was still wonderfully nice and had a great sense of humor. No surprise she was an Ann Richards fan.

What's your guilty pleasure?
Carbs, particularly cupcakes, which are practically contraband in the KXAN sports office. And reality television.

What's your favorite food?
My mother's lasagna and/or my father's chicken kebab and rice. Nothing like a little down-home Persian cooking!

Tell us about your family.
My mother is a librarian at the University of North Texas. She strongly believes in the pursuit of higher education. My father lives in Southern California and works in the IT industry. He has a great sense of humor. I have two younger brothers who always keep me entertained and on my toes.

You can e-mail Leila at Leila.Rahimi@kxan.com.