He holds a BA degree in Modern Languages from New College, Oxford and speaks both German and Russian.
Sebastian began his journalism career at Reuters in 1974, moving to the BBC as foreign correspondent in Warsaw in 1979.
Notable Hard Talk interviews[12] with world leaders included US Presidents Bill Clinton[13] Donald Trump[14] and Jimmy Carter,[15] Archbishop Desmond Tutu,[16] Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew,[17] and the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev.
[18] He currently hosts Conflict Zone, a one-on-one interview show on Deutsche Welle's international English-language channel.
The debates are also held in Arabic and hosted by Egyptian TV presenter Mai El Sherbiny.