Austin Grabish

About

Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Austin Grabish traded winter boots for a surfboard and has over a decade of reporting experience.He joined the ABC 10News team in January 2023 after moving to San Diego from Canada, where he worked as a staff reporter at CBC, the country’s national public broadcaster.Austin’s reporting during his first year in San Diego resulted in a criminal conviction, helped consumers recover thousands of dollars, and exposed a doctor who admitted to placing a hidden camera in a hospital restroom before moving out of state.Austin won an Emmy Award in 2024 for his investigation into a burial-at-sea business that went dark after accepting human ashes from customers across the country. The story triggered multiple state investigations and received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists.His reporting on the border crisis during the lead-up to the end of Title 42 was nominated for an Emmy Award and shone a light on the human faces often lost in the fierce debate surrounding U.S. immigration.Austin covers the Medical Board of California, military investigations, and acts as a watchdog on local government.In Canada, Austin’s stories aired on the country’s flagship national nightly newscast, The National, and on CBC News Network. He also reported for national radio, and his work aired on over a dozen local TV stations.His dogged reporting on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights won the Investigative Excellence Award from RTDNA Canada in 2021 and triggered the resignation of the organization’s CEO. Austin revealed that the museum had forced staff to hide LGBT content when religious school groups were present.In 2020, Austin was instrumental in highlighting how Indigenous communities were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He reported from a remote fly-in community as the military was deployed to help fight the crisis. In 2019, Austin led CBC’s network coverage, providing around-the-clock updates from the ground in Northern Canada during the manhunt for serial teenage killers Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. A year prior, Austin won the national RTDNA Canada Ron Laidlaw Award for his extensive reporting on asylum seekers who lost limbs to frostbite after risking their lives to enter Canada on foot in the middle of winter. Austin’s original scoops have been followed by international news outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, The New York Post, Newsweek, The Washington Post, People Magazine, The Guardian, BBC, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.