FORMER STAFF

2018-2019 Editorial Staff & Production Team

Devika Girish – Editor-in-Chief

Devika is a film and culture journalist, whose work has appeared in Film Comment, Village Voice, Reverse Shot, MUBI’s Notebook, Vague Visages, and other publications. She grew up in Nagpur, India, and studied Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, graduating with honors. Devika is interested in exploring the ways in which cinema can both reflect and redefine global culture—and the decisive role film critics can play in that process.

Melissa Dueñas – Radio Producer and Audio Editor

Melissa has been both a participant and observer in arts communities from San Diego to San Francisco, as a musician, DJ, documentarian and now journalist. She is the creator of the online radio show Lowrider Sundays and transmedia endeavor, East Side Story Project; both of which explore the affinity for oldies music within Chicanx culture. Dueñas is most interested in creating visibility for communities that have been historically overlooked and misrepresented in media.

Vivian Medithi – Managing Editor

Vivian is a writer and journalist from Iowa who has previously worked for NewHive, The Daily Iowan, and 1833.fm. Notable problem solver, questionable comedian. @perlucidum

Jasmine Ivanna Espy – Web Designer

Jasmine is an arts, culture and entertainment journalist, pursuing a career in long form documentary. Previously she was a magazine freelance feature writer, host of a film critique podcast and, a tracking engineer for local radio stations and recording studios. Espy graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, with a BA in broadcast journalism. As the 2018/ 2019 Sony Pictures Fellow at USC Annenberg, Espy is focusing on film criticism + long form documentary.

Jon Reed – Audio Producer and Cultural Reporter

Jon is a multi-media journalist and native Angeleno. With a background in film editing, he spent several years working on film and television projects for Paramount Pictures, HBO, ABC, and PBS. He enjoys playing music, running for extended periods of time, and casual discussions about the meaning of life.

Mirabella McDowell – Social Media Manager and Arts Essayist

Mirabella is an arts and culture writer and journalist from San Diego, California. In 2018, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in English and a specialization in Modern Literature. She also previously worked as the Social Media intern for UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division. She is passionate about storytelling, with much of her work focused on empowering women by critically examining institutionalized misogyny and gendered language in media. She loves traveling, film & television, and just about anything written by Shonda Rhimes.

Natalie Bader – Music Writer and Critic

Natalie is a musician and writer from Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Flute Performance, and has performed all kinds of music from J.S. Bach to Terry Riley. She enjoys listening to every genre, and aims to make music accessible to all audiences through both text and radio.

Neyat Yohannes – Film Critic & Arts Writer

Neyat is an arts and culture writer, whose work has appeared in KQED Arts, the East Bay Express, Cleo Film Journal, Chicago Review of Books, Playboy, and Okayafrica, among other publications. She thinks intersectionality is more than just a buzzword and regularly considers its relevance in her writing.

Sophie-Marie Prime – Television and Cultural Critic

Sophie-Marie is an arts journalist from San Diego, California. Her work focuses on media representation, and how cultural conversations influence film and television narratives. In 2018, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in Media Studies and Film, and a minor in Journalism. Previously, she served as assistant arts editor at The Daily Californian, which was awarded best all-around daily student newspaper by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2018.

2016-2017 Editorial Staff & Production Team

Didi Beck – Co-Creative Director

Didi grew up in Jamaica. She explores culture and tells ghost stories. And she wants to hear yours.

Jamie Carragher – Text Editor

Jamie writes about music, theatre, TV and comedy. Jamie has a way with words but sometimes they have their way with him.

Angel Chen – Performance Art Editor

Angel was born in Taiwan and moved to Los Angeles when she was twelve. She developed her passion for performance art after she played the role as an angel in her kindergarten Christmas play. She will continue to make short documentaries and venture into multimedia platform. Angel spends her free time petting animals, designing costumes and illustrating fashion drawings.

Hannah Deitch – Editor-in-Chief

Hannah is a writer and critic covering film, television, and literature. She is an Atlanta native who spent the last five years in NY making films and writing fiction.

Ashley Eady – Managing Editor, Music Editor

Ashley is putting her music degree to good use by writing and podcasting about music. She loves radio, reviewing live shows, and is interested in the intersection of art and technology. She is fluent in French and has a soft spot in her heart for baby animals.

Samanta Helou – Co-Creative Director and Culture Editor

Samanta is a multimedia storyteller focusing on music, food, and culture. You can usually find her dancing cumbia at La Cita. Her work can be found at samantahelou.com.

Paola Mardo – Creative Producer

Paola is a journalist and audio producer making stuff about film, race and culture. In a previous life, she worked on publicity, digital and marketing campaigns for film companies including Annapurna Pictures and Sony Pictures. Her work can be found at Film School Rejects, F This Weekly and paolamardo.com.

Brian Marks – Film & Television Editor, Copy Editor

Brian is a journalist and critic. Originally from Indiana, Brian spends his free time catching up on new TV and classic films. He is interested in the evolution of television and the future of film preservation. His film and television writing is collected at In Praise of Cinema.

Haley Ray – Video Editor

Haley is a native North Carolinian and documentarian, with an interest in film and visual storytelling. She loves running and drinking unnecessary amounts of coffee.

Bianca Richter – Webmaster

Bianca is a Los Angeles native, living in Pasadena, CA. She loves musicals, historic architecture, and most things Disney.

Photos by Samanta Helou

2015-2016 Editorial Staff & Production Team

Lara Altunian – Dance Reporter

Lara is an Angeleno who loves to experience different cultures through dance. She is interested in visual and interactive storytelling and hopes to dive into LA’s dance community as both an arts journalist and critic. Aside from reading and writing, she also enjoys crafting, skating and consuming copious amounts of coffee.

Katie Antonsson – Web Designer, Copyeditor

Katie is a native Angeleno who’s been getting lost in art museums since the age of six. She likes pocket notebooks, Andrew Wyeth paintings, earl grey tea, and heated debates about hip-hop. Her font of preference is Garamond and she will never relinquish the serial comma.

Karina Cabreja – Editor

Karina is a New York native who grew up in a single-parent Dominican household. She does music marketing for Universal Music Latin Entertainment by day and is an arts journalist by night. Karina’s love of music and the arts have driven her passion to understand and dig through the depths of the people who make it happen.

Monica Castillo – Film Reporter

Monica is the resident film fanatic. She’s traveled to a few festivals, met a couple of legends, and has some great stories about hitchhiking to red carpet premieres. Monica can usually be found online talking about the film she just watched.

Corinne DeWitt – Hopscotch Correspondent

Corinne believes in willfully disarranging the senses and wishes she were a French surrealist. A lover of wine and violas and calligrammes, she revels in immersion: art that considers time and space.

Donna Granata – Fine Arts Reporter

Donna is the Founder and Executive Director of Focus on the Masters, a non-profit reference library and educational program documenting contemporary artists. She is the type of person who names her pets after famous art lovers – cats Claribel and Etta Cone, and zebra finches Henry Miller and Anis Nin who were particularly amorous. She is currently developing her velvety radio voice.

Allyson Gronowitz – Managing Editor

Allyson is still anxiously awaiting her Hogwarts letter. She can be found waxing existential on Twitter regarding science fiction, hockey, feminism, and all of the great television you should be watching. Allyson is widely acknowledged to be the only sentient being on the planet who unironically loved the ending of Lost.

Mark McNeill – Creative Producer

Mark is a lifelong explorer focused on forging human connections through cultural exchange. After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1999, Mark co-founded dublab.com, a Los Angeles-based non-profit web radio station and creative arts collective. Since then, he has directed the organization in its mission of spreading positive music, arts, and culture across the universe. Mark finds joy in traveling the world: listening, tasting, looking, feeling, and interacting with a wide open mind.

Jonathan Shifflett – Audio Editor

Jonathan is a guitar, banjo and fiddle player with a passion for radio storytelling. His only plan so far is to stand at the intersection of art and culture holding a microphone. Someday, he hopes to keep bees.

Kelby Vera – Editor-in-Chief

Kelby is a friendly witch who likes to write about art. You can likely find her visiting museums, talking to neighborhood cats, or browsing cheese in your local grocery store. She enjoys sturdy cameras, wet paint, awkward poetry and making a mess.

Brian Welk – Content Producer

Brian is a journalist, film critic, Chicagoan and Honorary Hoosier. When he’s not watching movies or managing embarrassing spreadsheets of films he still has to catch up on, he’s a craft beer enthusiast, “that guy” who dances at indie rock concerts, and a newly minted insane person at Fantasy Football and Baseball. If he can find the time (he almost never does), he enjoys skiing, golfing, biking and running.

Allison Wolfe – Editor

Allison was raised in an all-female, single-parent household by a lesbian feminist mother who started the first women’s health clinic in Olympia, WA. While attending university, Allison co-founded a punk feminist fanzine “Girl Germs,” an all-girl band Bratmobile, and third wave feminist punk movement riot grrrl. She also initiated a non-profit feminist music festival Ladyfest in 1999. She DJs, sings in the band Sex Stains, and is working an oral history of riot grrrl.

To read more about the founders of Ampersand click here.