Brian Carlson is an award-winning Utah journalist, who has spent the last 16 years reporting in his hometown, but his time on television started much earlier than that. Born and raised in Utah, Brian got his first taste for on-air news at 8 years old being interviewed by KSL for knowing how to call 911 during an attempted home break-in. He began appearing regularly on TV in high school for an all-student run show on KUTV, then graduated from BYU in Broadcast Journalism.
His professional TV career started in 2005 at KNDU in Kennewick, Washington. Brian moved back to Utah in 2008 reporting and anchoring for various shows at ABC4, and finally came to KSL in June 2024. In 2012, Brian won a regional Emmy for his report titled “Spice in the City,” in which Brian purchased drugs undercover and was instrumental in assisting police capture an illegal drug dealer. In 2014, Brian was the first TV reporter to tell the story of Ron Stallworth, a young black detective who infiltrated the KKK. Brian’s report became the catalyst to the Oscar award-winning film “BlacKkKlansman” directed by Spike Lee. In Brian’s career, he’s reported on everything from going behind the fire lines documenting the moment an elderly couple discovered they lost all they had in a Utah wildfire, to jumping out of an airplane, or gliding 57 mph down the Olympic skeleton track in Park City. Brian is also the only reporter to become an NBA mascot for a day, working with the former Utah Jazz Bear. Watching KSL5 News you can find Brian each week covering the latest news LIVE on location, including the devastating flooding in Orem, the Honie execution, or from the Utah GOP headquarters LIVE on election night, etc…