Brenna Ehrlich

A life-long writer, Brenna Ehrlich initially went to Northwestern University to study theater, but ended up reporting for alternative newsweeklies like the Chicago Reader, which led her to pursue her master’s in magazine journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

After graduate school, Ehrlich moved to New York City, where she wrote and edited for Jewish culture magazine HEEB, worked as associate entertainment editor at tech website Mashable, and garnered a blog-to-book deal for her Tumblr, Stuff Hipsters Hate. In the meantime, she moved over to MTV, where she worked and wrote for various awards shows, eventually becoming the Senior Pop Editor at MTV News and releasing her first YA novel, Placid Girl. From there, she became the editor in chief for Talkhouse Music, where she edited musicians’ essays on both records and the music scene at large.

Talkhouse led to a role at Jay-Z’s TIDAL music streaming service, where Ehrlich was the head of rock and indie content — and editor of the service’s online music magazine. While at TIDAL, Ehrlich freelanced for Rolling Stone, covering true crime. She eventually moved over to the iconic publication, where she worked first as the senior news editor and then chief research editor. While on that beat, she released second YA novel, Killing Time.

In her spare time, Ehrlich works with volunteer organization Empowerment Avenue, helping incarcerated writers hone and edit personal essays for publication in the likes of the Marshall Project, Al Jazeera, and Rolling Stone. She loves working with writers of all levels to tell their stories — whether they’re famous musicians, inmates, or high school students.

Other things to note: Ehrlich has three matching gray cats, a husband named Morgan, and lives in New Jersey. She likes to visit farm stands, obsess over miniatures, and experiment with the New York Times cooking app. She used to mosh, but no more.