Jen Chaney has been writing about movies, television and popular culture since she got her first “journalism job” in 1983, as the film critic for her elementary school newsletter. (She gave A Christmas Story three stars. She stands by that review.)

For nine years, until May of 2025, Jen was a TV critic for Vulture and New York magazine, a job that gave her the opportunity to rave about Fleabag, hang out on the set of Veep, place the Lost finale in proper context, and attempt to explain Ken Marino. She is currently a freelance writer who contributes to the New York Times, TV Guide and The Washington Post. She also can be heard weekly on WTOP, a major news station in Washington, D.C.

Jen is the author of the book As If: The Oral History of Clueless (Simon & Schuster), which is available wherever books are sold. She also contributed several essays to A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas (Smart Pop), a book that Tim Riggins would never read because Tim Riggins famously did not care for reading.

In the beginning of the 21st century, she spent 12-and-a-half years working at The Washington Post, where, among other things, she wrote the popular Celebritology blog originally founded by her friend and colleague, Liz Kelly. While conducting a video interview for the Post in 2005, George Clooney jokingly referred to her as “a chicken shit.” It was the nicest insult she has ever received.