Staff
EDITOR
Phil Wallace
After years of running Oscar pools on EXCEL spreadsheets, Phil Wallace founded AwardsPicks.com in 2009. As a result, awards show fans could manage their pools with the same ease and efficiency as their March Madness pool or fantasy football league. The site changed its name to Picktainment.com in 2011 and today hosts fantasy games for reality shows like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Phil earned his B.A. in political science from Columbia University in New York. He subsequently worked on New York’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, and then moved to Florida to work as a Special Projects Analyst for the Tampa Bay Rays. After watching the Rays improve from baseball’s worst record to a World Series team, Phil earned his M.B.A. at the USC Marshall School of Business. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he works in Business Development for ScoreBig.com. Additionally, Phil is a regular contributor to LAObserved.com and “The Filter with Fred Roggin.” He is “Mr. March” in the Nice Jewish Guys Calendar for 2012. No joke.
SENIOR WRITERS
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen was born in Tampa, FL and spent the first 11 years of her life there. With detours through Indiana and Washington D.C., she landed in Southern California, and eventually was admitted to UCLA as the result of a computer glitch (not really), where she earned a B.A. in English. She was dangerously close to becoming a Mormon once.
A long-time movie fanatic, since her mother let her stay up late to watch old movies like /Duel in the Sun/, she turned her passion into a long and varied career in the entertainment business. Kit has worked as an actress, director of development, story analyst and project/event coordinator. She even does improvisation comedy once in awhile.
For the past 11 years, Kit has been an entertainment journalist and film critic, loving every second of it. She’s written for Hollywood.com, Fandango, ExtraTV.com and AwardsPicks.com. But her crowning jewel is creating the blog, TheMovieKit.com, bringing to her loyal readers movie reviews, interviews, casting stories, trailers, box office analysis, award show coverage and all her many thoughts about the film industry, past and present.
Andrew Payne
Andrew Payne has been obsessed with forecasting the Oscars since he predicted the Shakespeare in Love upset over Saving Private Ryan in his high school paper. Since that time he’s been obsessively charting all sorts of awards races and committing that madness to virtual print.
When not writing about statuettes, he writes comedically at places like the Second City and the iOWest and snarkily on sites like StarPulse, ScreenCrave and right here on AwardsPicks.com.
Adam Spunberg
Adam Spunberg is a law school graduate with a B.A. from Columbia University. In addition to producing websites for MLB, he watches far too many movies and usually has something quirky to say about them. Among his favorite genres are period pieces, foreign films, and well-done blockbusters, which he will ferociously defend against elitist criticism. He also still enjoys going to movie theaters and counts down the Oscars for 11 months and 30 days every year. Adam resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
MARKETING DIRECTOR
Sarah Simmons
Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Sarah Simmons survived the cold and frosty winters in Boston to receive her degree in Marketing Communications: Advertising and Public Relations from Emerson College. Now back in San Diego, she works as the Director of Copywriting at an SEO company during the day, and spends her nights watching trashy reality television (occasionally she writes recaps of them for Picktainment). She enjoys pug dogs, burritos, anything purple, and writing about herself in the third person.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Amy Lindorff
Amy Lindorff grew up in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, wishing that she was friends with the cast of Boy Meets World. The University of Oregon gave her a degree in Environmental Studies even though she spent those four years baking, hiking, and watching every episode of The Larry Sanders Show. Amy then ended up in Los Angeles after a well-written blog landed her an internship at The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Now, she divides her time more or less equally between writing a blog called Open Letters, eating shrimp tacos, managing her online shopping wish lists, and waiting for the day when she magically turns into Tina Fey.
Hiko Mitsuzuka
A self-proclaimed pop culture connoisseur who resides in Los Angeles, Hiko has worked in television and commercial production ever since he packed his bags and left his native New York in 2002. He has worked at the world-renowned Anonymous Content in L.A. and freelances as a treatment writer for several of the country’s top commercial directors and as a contributing writer for Instinct and Campus Circle. Hiko is also the entertainment editor for Bello Mag (available in the App Newsstand on iTunes) and the executive editor of HotterInHollywood.com.
In 2009, Hiko took on the role of producer, having worked on the short film, Bitch, several non-profit PSAs for a2im.org and CurrenTV, and viral promos for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Hiko’s obsessions include Downton Abbey, quoting dialogue from Happy Endings, and playing with Instagram. His weaknesses include chocolate chip cookies and movie theater popcorn. Tweet him @TheFirstEcho.
Erica Scandariato
Erica was born and raised in Long Island, NY and is a graduate of Boston University (pre Craigslist Killer). She majored in Film and Television and is currently a Script Supervisor on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Her passion for reality TV started in High School when she became hooked on the short-lived Fox series “Temptation Island,” however her proudest accomplishment to date is having seen every episode of “Growing up Gotti.” Also, she loves cats.
EDITOR AT LARGE
Lilit Marcus
Lilit Marcus is the author of Save the Assistants: A Guide for Surviving and Thriving in the Workplace. She has also written – mostly about reality TV – for The Forward, Cosmopolitan, The New York Post, and Crushable. A Brooklynite by way of North Carolina, she also enjoys Cheerwine, dropping the occasional “g,” and swearing at taxi drivers.
CONTRIBUTORS
Kendra Beltran
Socially awkward with a notebook and a pen. Kendra’s a small town girl amidst the hustle and bustle of the city commuting from the depths of the valley to the beaches of Santa Monica daily. Music is her lover. TV is her soul mate. She’d rather go to a concert or stay in and watch primetime than go out and meet breathing life forms because the men and women on the stage and on TV are less likely to give her a headache and chit chat with her about meaningless activities she doesn’t understand. Sometimes you just have a gut feeling as to what you’re supposed to be doing, and right now Kendra’s gut is saying go with the flow; take what you can get at the moment and run with it because it might not be there tomorrow.
Michael Benedict
Michael was born and raised in south Texas before moving to Dallas where he graduated with a film degree from the University of North Texas. During this time he worked a variety of cringe worthy jobs to pay the rent. He worked as a movie projectionist which was able to feed his appetite for compulsive movie watching. Spontaneously he did a lot of traveling and couch surfing until gravitating to Los Angeles like most small time film aficionados. He now works on different projects doing production assistant work as well as other odd jobs. He enjoys coffee, offbeat humor, and some other third thing. He spends a lot of time writing but currently has a loss for words.
Some odd fun facts about Michael- He once won a chicken nugget eating contest and felt really gross afterwards. He owned sixty guinea pigs at one point in his life. His middle name is Scott.
Kacy Boccumini
Kacy Boccumini is a film writer living in Los Angeles. She has a Masters Degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Cinema Studies and currently works in the Marketing department for a major studio. Her dream is to write films for a living, have a weekly column in a major publication, as well as host her own Television show reviewing films. Her favorite films include, “Jaws”, “Kramer vs. Kramer”, “Chinatown”, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, and “When Harry Met Sally”. Her favorite movie line, “Mr. Zero knew.”
Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell was saved from a strict and structured upbringing and exposed to the world at large thanks to his mother’s decision to install cable television. This exposure along with living near cheap double features at the Clairemont Theater in San Diego made him a film lover and critic early on. He began writing both fiction, commentary and other articles just after high school under a series of pseudonyms that he’s reluctant to share with most. The majority of his early work went to underground newspapers and magazines free of charge while he also worked at the city’s newspaper industry in an attempt to find a career there. Impatience with traditional methods and signs of a dying industry sent him to writing in digital media instead. Colin lives and works in Los Angeles.
Noah Duman
Noah Duman is a Los Angeles-based writer, occasional comedian, and voracious consumer of pop culture and reality television. He was born and rased in the San Francisco Bay Area and received his B.A. in East Asian Studies and Japanese from the University of California, Davis. In addition to Picktainment, he contributes to various other sites and maintains the pop culture blog worstquality. When not writing 1000+ word screeds about various Real Housewives and American Idol contestants, Noah enjoys traveling, cooking, and tweeting about inane nonsense.
Paige Feldman
Paige Feldman graduated with a BA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2007. After that she made the inexplicable decision to become both her parents (her dad’s an attorney and her mom is a writer) by attending law school and writing in her free time. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 2010 and opted not to practice law (she’s a rebel like that). These days, when she’s not toiling away for Picktainment, or keeping current on as much TV as possible, Paige is writing scripts and novels, training for marathons and half marathons, and watching USC Trojan and Mizzou Tiger football.
Paul Hansen
Paul Hansen has been active as an actor, director and theatre producer and divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. He has also written the music for a number of off-Broadway productions and been the recipient of several Meet the Composer grants. In addition, he has won two piano competitions. He also studied film production at USC and UCLA.
Joe Hebert
Joe Hebert is a publishing graduate with a B.A. from Emerson College. Born and raised in southern Maine, Joe is the editor of several weekly newspapers in the southern Maine and New Hampshire seacoasts. Additionally, he watches far more than a ‘healthy’ amount of television and movies. Though he appreciates the classier fare that Hollywood occasionally offers, Joe never turns down the chance to watch a new CW soap or to see the newest comic book-movie, no matter how bad it may be—ahem, Miss Lively. Until the day he’s paid for his opinions, though, he’ll continue to pleasure (or bother) you with his thoughts on the latest blockbusters, epic cinematic failures and celebrity maniacs.
Lauren Herstik
Lauren is a writer whose work comes up in a google search of Gawker.com, PeterGreenberg.com, Tufts University publications, hot dogs, Downton Abbey, and New Jersey municipal government. She’s an east coast transplant living in Los Angeles where she spends her time studying improv comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade, writing TV spec scripts, making art, learning to dance, rewording the name of her Counterterrorism Studies major on the bottom of her resume, and hiking in places with easy nearby access to Korean food.
William Paul Jones
William Paul Jones is a fearsome, elemental concoction of machismo and concrete, emotionally sensitive and bred for intense post-modernism. He holds degrees in film, theater, and television from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (a place that he is forbidden from ever returning), and splits his money-making time evenly between film editing and daring heists. His once and future pursuits include freelance blogging, guitar serenading, soccer commentating, script writing, acting, teaching, and generally being cool. Clearly, he is not to be trusted. His favorite movies are The Usual Suspects, The Fellowship of the Ring, Airplane, Fight Club, and Dead Poets Society. His wit is outdone only by his sex appeal.
Ryan Koch
Ryan is a comedy writer/producer/intern who recently moved to Southern California from Pittsburgh, PA. After receiving a degree in marketing from Duquesne University, he realized that the only thing that needed marketed was himself, so he writes, performs stand-up comedy, produces comedy shorts, and lives the dream, hoping one day it will all pay-off. He’s not famous but he once was an extra in “Adventureland,” and served as an uncredited location scout for “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” when he lived in Pittsburgh. He hates movies but loves writing about them. He also hates writing in the third person.
Megan Lane
After abandoning the frozen tundra of Minnesota for sunny California and Trojan football, Megan Lane set up camp in Hollywood. Her days are typical, hikes at Runyon, luge lessons, and a constant hunt for the perfect red suede pump. She has been told on more than one occasion that she looks like Madeline Zima, which she takes as a compliment because Madeline Zima is hot and was on The Nanny.
Her favorite movie of all time is Twister, but also maintains Bill Paxton is the worst actor in the history of the world. Take that, Brendan Fraser! She also enjoys Young Frankenstein, Apollo 13, The Silence of the Lambs, The Last of the Mohicans and of course, Titanic.
Megan has an almost inappropriate relationship with her television, loves long walks on the beach, and has been known to crash several awards shows searching for photo ops with B-List celebrities and free booze.
Aphrodite Manousos
Aphrodite’s love of entertainment began in her formative years when, to the chagrin of accompanying family members, she would spontaneously and quite loudly break into song on buses. The adoration of her vast public transportation audience led Aphrodite to pursue acting at Stella Adler, among other performing arts institutions. How she ended up at UCLA getting a degree in English and Political Science is anyone’s guess, including her own. While at UCLA she pursued her joint passions for writing, entertainment and journalism and was a contributing writer for the Daily Bruin in arts and entertainment.
After graduating she worked in film and TV production and went on to work in public relations and marketing. Her hobbies include Kali knife fighting, squinting at the sun in order to perfect her Clint Eastwood impression (see photo) and cultivating her creative juices. Although cultivating creative juices may seem unappealing to some, it makes her happy. Traveling also tickles her fancy and Aphrodite has had the opportunity to live, study and play in many countries throughout Europe including Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, England and the Czech Republic. She would also like to add that her name is neither a “medical term,” which someone once suggested, nor is it her stage name. It is a family name and yes, she is Greek.
Jeremy Martin
Jeremy Martin is a child of the South who, while not completely ignoring his roots, has fully and enthusiastically adopted Los Angeles, California as home. He has an MFA from Boston University in film production, which has always been his first love (Do The Right Thing is his all-time favorite movie). Nevertheless, Jeremy has managed to get his foot in the door of television writing and is still trying to figure out how to worm himself all the way in.
Obed Medina
Obed Medina is a Los Angeles-based playwright, director, and theatre and film critic. He received his BA in Creative Writing with Honors at the University of California, Riverside, where he wrote, directed, and produced his first play. He served as resident director for a theatre company in North Hollywood and Hollywood between 2005-2008, while developing his own theater company, Askew Theatre Company, focusing on workshops of new works from emerging Los Angeles playwrights.
Courteney Merritt
Native Southern Californian Courteney Merritt escaped the sunny, sandy confines of L.A. for the gloomy yet hallowed halls of Oxford where she proudly earned an English degree. Safely ensconced back in SoCal, she was a tad disheartened to find out that while it impressed her friends and family, it wasn’t a particularly useful degree. Stumbling upon a book entitled “Read All Day and Get Paid for It” seemed like a dream come true for this literature major, and she parlayed her avid interest in films and television into a satisfying career as a freelance script reader for production companies, agents and the Motion Picture Academy’s prestigious Nicholl Fellowship. A stint at Netflix cemented her abiding devotion to the entertainment industry, and she is pleased to be able to contribute her insight to AwardsPicks. Her film interests range from This is Spinal Tap to Braveheart, and her couch potato proclivities include both meaty dramatic series and high quality comedies, although she has been known to TiVo the odd episode of “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Steve Neumann
Steve Neumann is a Los Angeles transplant via Michigan. A graduate of Michigan State University in Theatre, he has been in L.A. for nine years. Steve is avidly involved in Arts Education and works for many great school district and various age groups. He is a Master Teaching Artist with the Center Theatre Group and the proud owner of The Sunset Theatre Company. Steve also had the pleasure of attending five Oscars as the Supervisor of Event Services at the Kodak Theatre. Steve is an avid fan of film, especially comedy and historical epics. Some favorite films and guilty pleasures include, but definitely not limited to, Swingers, Braveheart, Gladiator, The Godfather, A Knight’s Tale, Far and Away, The Hangover, Anchorman, and Casino. Steve also works as a comedian and was a top 10 finalist in the Best Improvisor in L.A. at IO West and was also named The National Enrichment Teacher of the Year for the 2009 school year. Steve is set to be married in September and if you really like his writing you can send him a gift, he’s registered at the usual places!
Savanna New
Savanna New is a French teacher with Master’s degrees in both French and education. After abandoning her Southern roots and spending five years living a peaceful, eco-friendly existence among the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, she decided to give urban jungle life a whirl and now resides in New York City. Aside from teaching and all things French, Savanna’s passions include literature, musical theatre, outdoor markets, and Smart Cars. Oh, and she likes movies, too. Especially ones that make her cry.
Fallon Okwuosa
Fallon Okwuosa was born in Sacramento, CA and was raised in a nearby suburb called Roseville. She is a graduated from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona with a B.S. in Journalism. Her fascination with entertainment news and reality TV make Picktainment the perfect home for her. Her guilty pleasures are VH1 and E! reality TV shows; she plans her life around each Basketball Wives episode.
Rebecca Rose
Rebecca Rose is a comedy writer based out of Southern California and Texas, which she assures us is lovely and not “filled with giant snakes and people with guns”. She is the creator and snark mastermind behind Jealous Bitch and has written extensively about movies, television, and pop culture for WetPaint, Open Lab Magazine, Week in Rewind and numerous other sites. A stand-up comic and devoted film geek, she is a gradate of Columbia College in Chicago, where she majored in Film. In 2005, she co-produced the documentary “Stones from the Soil” for PBS, providing concrete proof to the scientific community and her mom that not everyone who goes to film school just ends up working at a video store. (She was fired from that video store). Her origins are largely unknown. Some people suspect she was raised by a pack of wolves, except it is highly unlikely that wolves would put up with so much drinking and swearing.
Jax Russo
Jax is a fashion blogger. Known as the “Fashion Deal Diva” around the net, she is the go-to person for what was hot, and what was not, on the red carpet. Jax has two degrees from Columbia University and resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Dantzler Smith
Dantzler Smith has a BA in Philosophy from a college you’ve never heard of and an MA in Political and Social Thought from a British university that isn’t Cambridge, Oxford, or located in London. Thus, he spends his time contemplating the meaning (or perhaps meaninglessness) of life and writing articles about TV, movies, society, and sports. He wishes he was Chuck Klosterman. He enjoys Ernest Hemingway, college football and basketball, and Tom Waits. In other words, he’s a drinker. Dantzler resides in Minneapolis.
Jordan Thompson
Jordan spends her days in a classroom with intellectually disabled children whom she adores, but every free moment is dedicated to feeding her voracious appetite for any and everything in the entertainment field. Given a diet of Shakespeare and Greek Mythology at a young age, she is a passionate consumer of classic literature and exemplary contemporary works. Jordan’s father instilled in her a love of brilliant television and cinema that has fostered a life-long game of Name That Movie with her brother. She works entertainment quotes and factoids into regular conversation in the manner that only annoying know-it-alls think is okay. She speaks fluent (and only) sarcasm, reads Little Women at least once a year, and does an award worthy Scarlett O’Hara impression. Jordan hopes to land somewhere in a cross-section of her passion for high fashion, haute couture, and entertainment culture but no matter where she ends up she’ll have a notepad in one hand and a laptop in the other.
Bryce Van Kooten
Bryce Van Kooten was born and raised in rural Washington State, and soon realized that there was more to life than baseball, football and chuckin’ cow pies. He soon made his way from the rain, down to sunny California, onto a collegiate lacrosse team and then over the hill to the home of legendary rodent: Mickey Mouse. Bryce loves movies. Bryce writes movies. He also edits graphic novels for the Big D. I told you, this guy’s a legend. And there, tucked away in the hills of Glendale, CA, you might spot him, occasionally, if he feels lucky, running shirtless.
Bronwen Winter Phoenix
Bronwen Winter Phoenix is a 26-year-old three-time published fiction author and freelance journalist currently residing in the UK.
A highly-devoted supporter of the Root Vegetable Rights Campaign (1976 – present), she is therefore one of those evil meat-eater types. Of course, she’s not adverse to a good parsnip or two, as long as they’ve been treated right.
Not having a clue what she’s currently doing in life, Bronwen has vowed to abandon all her woes in the deepest and darkest Amazonian jungle she can find, in a loin cloth, if things go inherently wrong for her. Also, having received various offers from men promising to take her to Easter Island, she still hasn’t been yet. Still a sore point, and she is still open to offers.
Under the alias of Capt. Feral Phoenix, Bronwen started up her own online magazine called ‘Feral Army’ where she freely employed a bunch of writers she called ‘ferals’ to write for her. Bronwen herself managed to interview many celebrities and write about things such as Carl Jung and horror writing before Feral Army finally closed its doors in early 2011. It had a good run, but it needed the funding rather badly.
Her publisher at Cauliay Publishing once stated that if there was an X-Factor for writers, she would be the winner. Little does he know that if there was an X-Factor for writers, she would probably kill herself. You can read more of Bronwen at her site: bronwenwinterphoenix.com
Scott Youngbauer
Born and raised in central Montana, Scott came out to Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Montana May in 2010 for an internship at the Hollywod trailer vender Aspect Ratio. After working at Aspect Ratio, Scott moved to Pasadena where he divides writing about film with jobs in restaurants and retail. His career goal is to become a film journalist. Favorite films include Weekend, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Heavenly Creatures. Scott enjoys karaoke, and has a guilty pleasure for Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls.
Christa Youngpeter
Having been mistaken for a celebrity 1.5 times since moving to Los Angeles, Christa has taken her rightful place in the industry critiquing award-baiting works like All About Steve and Mongolian Death Worm. Lately though, writing for AwardsPicks.com has lead to reviewing some films that win actual awards, including Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes. Such a revelation has elevated Christa’s love of movie watching and writing into a more high brow echelon, though adult fiction is still her chosen genre.
A graduate of Loyola University, the Denver native has enjoyed seeing her name in print with and sans serif since her first publication in the second grade. After traveling the globe in her younger years, being chained to “the man” makes writing a needed outlet until that elusive masters degree aligns perfectly with a busy life. Christa also enjoys bacon wrapped anything, Loehmann’s and guys who drive BMWs.
