I’m a hybrid sort–

a Montreal-born, Vancouver-reared, Chicago-educated Angeleno told repeatedly as a child that I was "actually European." I learned in college this means I should have at least summered in Mallorca. We just ate our dinners really late.

The varied upbringing spawned a sense of wanderlust and an undying fascination with people: our feelings, flaws, the way we think. Home, to me, is in the potency of conversation, the life-affirming power of a story well told, the kinship created over a good meal. And I believe that some of our most sensual pleasures – food, sex, travel, Anderson Paak’s ‘Malibu’ album – are also our most important. These things fuel most everything I do.

I'm pretty great at being first to the dance floor and last to leave the restaurant, and no more than medium at guessing your zodiac sign (won’t stop me from trying). I will never, ever be able to sense which direction is east.

And I love talking to strangers. Say hi. xx

I’ve interviewed and directed projects with GOATs like Pharrell Williams, Gloria Steinem, Misty Copeland, and Gabriela Cámara at MasterClass, was senior producer for legend Larry King’s talk show, and spent my early days in entertainment working for the one and only Oprah Winfrey. I had the are-you-kidding luck of being a restaurant critic (admirer, really) in Chicago while hosting series on everything from personal finance to pets, and if you dig far enough into the annals of the internet, you’ll find footage of baby me covering parking disputes in Lawrence, Kansas. We all start somewhere.

I find it wild and wildly humbling to say I’m a James Beard Award winner and four-time Emmy nominee, though my mum might still be proudest of her three-year-old informing a man five decades her senior she won’t be stereotyped (I wanted to be a truck driver that day). Honestly, I might be proudest of that too. I hope I’ve lived up.

Like most creative sorts, I do a lot of things, but I’m an interviewer-host first and foremost. On air, behind the camera, in front of a live audience – there is nothing that lights me up like storytelling through the art of meaningful conversation (weekend lunch at Contramar might be a close second).

And I'm a connection junkie. The energetic connection made between two humans in conversation, the connections my brain makes as I'm listening to a guest, the ones spurred while I'm in the throes of research and have 30 tabs open and can suddenly see the maze of information I'm absorbing coalescing into something coherent. I feel insanely lucky to have pursued a path that allows me to explore these connections every day. It's my life's work.

some brass tacks

specialties

• Interviewing and directing talent of all stripes, from everyday people to A-list luminaries

• Clear and compelling communication, both verbal and written. A flair for articulation – in the room, on the fly, before an audience

• Soup-to-nuts creative production & direction, development through post

• Putting people at ease and creating spaces for others to be their whole selves

• Building lasting relationships with talent, teams, the person sitting next to me at the cafe

• Deep research, insatiable curiosity, and a knack for distilling fresh insight from disparate sources

• Live panel moderating and on-camera interviewing & hosting

• Connecting: with people from all walks, dots and ideas, humans with each other

• Leading and collaborating with teams with joy, empathy, integrity, and candor

• Balancing an eagle eye for detail with a mind for the big picture

• Content about relationships, psychology, sexuality, food, travel, psychedelics, & the human condition

• Analytical and creative thinking married with a strong sense of intuition

• Being your go-to for restaurant and hotel recs in any given city (ask me!)

• A commitment to excellence in all endeavors

• Sucking the marrow out of life

love notes