Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Taffy Brodesser-Akner (born Stephanie Akner) is an American journalist and author. She has worked freelance and as a contributor for 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. Her first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble , achieved widespread success.

Brodesser-Akner's first major journalism job was at Soap Opera Weekly, a job she held until her role was eliminated due to layoffs in June 2001.^[1] She also wrote for Mediabistro ^[2] 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".^[3] Her freelance articles often focused on celebrity profiles, several of which went viral.^[4] In 2014, she became a contributing writer to both The New York Times and GQ,^[2] and won a New York Press Club Award for entertainment news in a magazine for her story about actress Gaby Hoffmann.^[5] She won two New York Press Club awards in 2015, for her profiles of Damon Lindelof and Britney Spears.^[6] The same year, Brodesser-Akner was nominated for a Mirror Award for her profile of Joey Soloway,^[7] and she won the award in 2016 for her profile of broadcaster Don Lemon.^[8] In 2017, she became a full-time staff writer for The New York Times.^[4]

Her first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble , was published in June 2019 by Random House in the US^{[9] [10]} and by Wildfire in the UK.^[11] The novel was selected for the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020.^[12] Brodesser-Akner has adapted the novel as a TV miniseries, which debuted on Hulu on November 17, 2022.^[13] In 2023, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Her second novel, Long Island Compromise , was published in July 2024 by Random House in the US^[14] and by Wildfire in the UK.^[15]

Born Stephanie Akner, Brodesser-Akner received the nickname "Taffy" at a young age and continued using it professionally.^[16] She grew up in Brooklyn, New York,^[17] in an Orthodox Jewish household.^[18] She attended New York University.

She married Claude Brodesser in 2006.^[17] Brodesser converted to Judaism,^[17] a process that eventually led Akner to evaluate and reinforce her own observance of Jewish customs.^[19] After marrying, both took hyphenated last names.^[16] They have two children.^[20]

• Fleishman is in Trouble (2019, Random House)
• Long Island Compromise (2024, Random House)

• Official website Edit this at Wikidata
• Taffy Brodesser-Akner at IMDb

• Living people
• People from Huntington, New York
• 21st-century American journalists
• The New York Times journalists
• Jewish American journalists
• Jewish women writers
• New York University alumni
• 21st-century American Jews
• 21st-century American novelists
• 21st-century American women writers
• Novelists from New York (state)
• Journalists from New York (state)

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Year of birth missing (living people)