Taffy Brodesser-Akner (born Stephanie Akner) is an American journalist and author. She has worked freelance and as a contributor to GQ and The New York Times, where she is now a staff writer. Her profiles of celebrities have won her the New York Press Club Award and Mirror Award. She is the author of novels Long Island Compromise and Fleishman Is in Trouble. The latter was made into a seven-time Emmy-nominated miniseries, which she also wrote.
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Career
Journalism
Brodesser-Akner's first major journalism job was at Soap Opera Weekly, a job she held until it was eliminated due to layoffs in 2001. She also wrote for Mediabistro and did freelance pieces for magazines including ESPN The Magazine, GQ, and Texas Monthly. The Columbia Journalism Review called her "one of the nation's most successful freelance writers." Many of her freelance articles were celebrity profiles, several of which went viral. In 2014, she became a contributing writer to both The New York Times and GQ, and won a New York Press Club award for entertainment news in a magazine for her story about actress Gaby Hoffmann. She won two New York Press Club awards in 2015, for her profiles of Damon Lindelof and Britney Spears. The same year, Brodesser-Akner was nominated for a Mirror Award for her profile of Joey Soloway, and in 2016 she won the award for her profile of broadcaster Don Lemon. In 2017, she became a full-time staff writer at The New York Times.
