Neda Ulaby, NPR Biography
Reporter, Arts Information Unit
Neda Ulaby reports on arts and culture for NPR. Her work includes profiling authors, musicians, and others who inform the world through creative expression, and covering the complicated relationships between art, artists, and society.
Ulaby came to NPR in 2000. She was recruited through NPR's Next Generation Radio Initiative, and first helped to produce Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR. After landing a position on the cultural desk as an editorial assistant, she started reporting regularly for the desk, augmenting her radio work with arts journalism for the Washington City Paper.
Ulaby's stories include a series on women record producers and a piece on the overlap between opera lovers and aging fans of punk rock. Her obituary for musician Elliott Smith set a record for downloads from the NPR Web site. Ulaby was recently awarded a fellowship from the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism to study youth culture.
A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby was managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times, and co-host of a radio program entitled, What's Coming Out at the Movies. Her film reviews have appeared in alternative papers nationwide. She also edited fiction for The Chicago Review, and served on the editing staff of the leading academic journal Critical Inquiry. Her articles on slapstick comedy have been published internationally. She taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, and at high schools serving at-risk students.
Ulaby was born in Amman, Jordan, and grew up in the Midwest. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, she worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal. She now lives in Washington, D.C.
