Ria Lina

Ria Lina is an accomplished multi-award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and academic with a proven ability to engage and inform a range of audiences. Her dynamic presentation style and sharp intellect make her an ideal choice for conference facilitation and hosting.

In 2025 and 2026, Ria undertook two hugely successful national tours, reinforcing her reputation as a captivating MC who works brilliantly with a wide range of audiences, bringing energy, intelligence, humour, and insight.

Diagnosed with autism, Ria is a brilliant keynote speaker on neurodiversity and has wider STEM expertise, making her particularly relevant for scientific and technology events. In 2025 she drew on her scientific background to present Ria Lina Gets Forensic for BBC Radio 4.

Ria’s extensive media experience includes appearances on prominent shows such as Live At The Apollo (BBC), Have I Got News For You (BBC), QI (BBC), Mock The Week (BBC), The Last Leg (Channel 4), and as a regular co-host of Pointless (BBC). She has also featured on The News Quiz (Radio 4), The Now Show (Radio 4), Late Night Mash (Dave), and starred in Lovestruck High (Amazon Prime).

Notably, Ria is a Celebrity Mastermind winner and has co-hosted Yesterday, Today & The Day Before (Comedy Central) and Richard Hammond’s Brain Reaction (Comedy Central). She has also appeared in Countdown’s Dictionary Corner (Channel 4).

With academic qualifications including a BSc in Experimental Pathology, an MSc in Forensic Science, and a PhD in Virology, Ria brings a unique depth of knowledge to her work. She is a regular commentator on Sky News, BBC News, and Times Radio, offering scientific insight, political satire, and analytical commentary.

Keynote Talks

The Mask I Didn’t Know I Was Wearing 

Ria Lina was diagnosed autistic as an adult — not because the signs weren’t there, but because she was too good at hiding them. In this sharp, funny, and evidence-backed talk, Ria unpacks the science of masking: why 20% of the population suppresses who they are just to get through a Tuesday, why women and girls are especially invisible to diagnosis, and what it actually costs — individually and organisationally — when we design workplaces that reward performance over people. She ends with a simple but powerful distinction: there’s a difference between accommodating your staff and including them, and if you’re still at the first one, you’re not done yet. 

Different by Design: The Business Case for Neurodiversity 

One in five people is neurodivergent. So why are most organisations still designed for the other four? In this talk, Ria Lina makes the case — with data, wit, and a few uncomfortable questions — that neurodivergent employees aren’t a challenge to be managed, they’re a competitive advantage being wasted. From ADHD hyperfocus to autistic pattern recognition, Ria explores what genuine cognitive diversity looks like in practice, why the standard recruitment and management playbook screens out exactly the people you need, and what it would take to stop asking people to fit in and start building places that actually fit them. 

Should I Tell Them? The Cost of Keeping Quiet at Work 

Only around 10% of neurodivergent professionals choose to disclose at work. Which means that in most organisations, the vast majority of the people who think differently, process differently, and often perform brilliantly are doing so while quietly managing something their employer doesn’t know about — and couldn’t support even if they wanted to. In this talk, Ria Lina explores the disclosure dilemma from the inside: why neurodivergent employees stay silent, what that silence costs in energy, performance, and wellbeing, and what it actually takes to build a workplace where people feel safe enough to say something. Honest, evidence-grounded, and unexpectedly funny about a topic most organisations are too nervous to name, this is the talk for leaders and managers who want to move from a culture of tolerance to one of genuine trust.