Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes a weekly column for The Independent, which appears each Monday. She has become known for her keen commentary on issues of race and multiculturalism, and won the George Orwell Prize for political journalism 2002. She is a reluctant blogger, approaching the blogosphere with extreme caution…

Simon Carr has been The Independent’s parliamentary sketch writer for seven years. He has been described by Tony Blair as the “most vicious sketch writer working in Britain today”. He was a speech writer for the prime minister of New Zealand from 1992 to 1994. His working principle is: “Indignation keeps us young.”

Ben Chu has been a leader writer at The Independent since 2004. Before that he worked at the paper on the comment desk, letters department and the personal finance pages. He studied history at Jesus College, Oxford between 1997 and 2000.

Steve Connor is the Science Editor of The Independent. He previously worked for the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and New Scientist. He has won the prestigious British science writing award four times and has also won prizes for his medical and environmental journalism.

Mary Dejevsky is the chief editorial writer at The Independent. She has worked as a foreign correspondent all over the world, including Washington, Berlin and Moscow. She has become one of the country’s most respected commentators on Russia and regularly appears on radio and television.

Richard Garner is The Independent’s education editor. He has also written comment pieces on the development of private schooling in the UK and the influence of the home environment on a child’s school performance.

Adrian Hamilton is the comment editor at The Independent. He also writes a weekly column for the paper, in which he discusses international affairs and often writes on the Middle East, Iran and foreign policy issues. Before joining the paper, he was foreign editor of the Observer newspaper.

Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes a twice-weekly column for The Independent. He is the youngest person to be nominated for the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and in 2003 he was named 'Young Journalist of the Year' in the Press Gazette awards. He has reported from the United States, the CAR, the Congo, Iraq, Israel, Venezuela, Rwanda, Syria and Peru.

The Independent’s health editor Jeremy Laurance previously worked as a health specialist at the Times, the Sunday Correspondent and the Sunday Times. In 1997, he received the British Medical Association’s Medical Journalist of the Year award.

James Macintyre is night reporter for The Independent. His background is in current affairs television, where  he produced BBC1's Question Time having been a researcher and producer on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme.

Hamish McRae is an award-winning journalist and commentator, and one of the country’s most respected financial journalists. He was named Business and Finance Journalist of the Year 2006 at the British Press Awards and is currently an associate editor of The Independent.

Andy McSmith is a senior reporter at The Independent. He has also appeared on documentaries on BBC Radio 4. Andy has vast experience in political journalism, and has contributed columns on Gordon Brown and the EU.

Nigel Morris is The Independent’s home affairs correspondent. He has been based in the House of Commons since 1990, covering politics for The Birmingham Post and the Daily Mirror before moving to The Independent seven years ago

Sean O'Grady is Economics Editor of The Independent, though he has writes on many other subjects for the paper, from cars to television reviews. Previous to that he spent a happy few months as press secretary to Paddy Ashdown, then leader of the Liberal Democrats, and before that worked for the BBC, NatWest Group and Shell.

Deborah Orr writes two comment pieces each week for The Independent and a column in the Saturday paper. As well as having a worked as a broadcaster, she was the editor of the Guardian 'Weekend' supplement.

Christina Patterson joined The Independent's comment desk as an associate editor and contributor in 2007. A former director of the Poetry Society, and deputy literary editor of The Independent, she writes on cultural issues, books, politics and the arts.

Author of two acclaimed biographies of Tony Blair, John Rentoul is a political commentator for The Independent on Sunday and former leader writer for The Independent. He has also worked as a television journalist and as deputy editor of the New Statesman.

Established as one of the most influential political commentators in the country, Steve Richards was political editor of the New Statesman before joining The Independent as chief political commentator in 2000. He also presents GMTV's flagship news and current affairs show The Sunday Programme.

Michael Savage joined The Independent’s comment desk in 2007, and has written for the paper's news, features and comment desks. In 2006, he was nominated for the Student Interviewer of the Year award, and won the 2008 Hugh Cudlipp Award for this article.

Chris Schuler is responsible for the production of The Independent's Comment pages, and is a regular contributor the the newspaper's books and arts sections. Before joining The Independent, he worked as an editor on Rough Guides.

Mark Steel is a weekly columnist for The Independent. His writing takes a satirical look at the world of politics. Mark has spent many years as a stand-up comedian, and has presented several radio and television shows, as well as appearing on programmes such as Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2000, Mark stood as a candidate in the London Assembly elections.

Andreas Whittam Smith co-founded The Independent in 1986. He was also the paper’s first editor, a position he held until 1993. He remains a regular columnist. He has also served as president of the British Board of Film Classification, and is the chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service