Wikipedia

Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Taffy Brodesser-Akner (born Stephanie Akner) is an American journalist and author. She has worked freelance and as a contributor to GQ[2] and The New York Times,[3] where she is now a staff writer.[4] Her profiles of celebrities have won her the New York Press Club Award[5] and Mirror Award.[6] She is the author of novels Long Island Compromise and Fleishman Is in Trouble. The latter was made into a seven-time Emmy-nominated miniseries, which she also wrote.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Born
Stephanie Akner

1975 or 1976 (age 50–51)[1]
New York City, New York, United States
Alma materNew York University
OccupationJournalist
Spouse
Claude Brodesser-Akner
​
​
(m. 2006)​
Children2
Websitetaffyakner.com

Career

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Journalism

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Brodesser-Akner's first major journalism job was at Soap Opera Weekly, a job she held until it was eliminated due to layoffs in 2001.[7] 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."[8] Many of her freelance articles were 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.[9] The same year, Brodesser-Akner was nominated for a Mirror Award for her profile of Joey Soloway,[10] and in 2016 she won the award for her profile of broadcaster Don Lemon.[6] In 2017, she became a full-time staff writer at The New York Times.[4]

Fiction and television

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Her first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, was published in 2019 by Random House in the US[11][12] and by Wildfire in the UK.[13] The novel was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020.[14] Brodesser-Akner adapted the novel as a TV miniseries, which debuted on Hulu on November 17, 2022.[15] In 2023, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.[16] Her second novel, Long Island Compromise, was published in 2024 by Random House in the US[17] and by Wildfire in the UK.[18][19]

Personal life

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Born Stephanie Akner, Brodesser-Akner received the nickname "Taffy" at a young age and continued using it professionally.[20] She grew up in Brooklyn, New York,[1] in an Orthodox Jewish household.[3] She attended New York University.[21]

She married Claude Brodesser in 2006.[1] Brodesser converted to Judaism,[1] a process that eventually led Akner to evaluate and reinforce her own observance of Jewish customs.[22] After marrying, both took hyphenated last names.[20] They have two children.[23] She wrote that as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she was particularly alarmed when her son was called an antisemitic slur on the basketball court in Riverside Park, and her other son had a caricature done in Times Square that evoked antisemitic tropes.[24]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Brown, Janelle (2006-04-06). "Taffy Akner and Claude Brodesser". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  2. 1 2 3 Horgan, Richard (2014-10-22). "Taffy Brodesser-Akner Makes a Splash With GQ Feature Debut". Adweek. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  3. 1 2 Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2017-03-30). "The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  4. 1 2 3 Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara (2017-06-28). "New York Times Adds Feature Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner to Staff". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  5. 1 2 O'Shea, Chris (2014-06-04). "NY Press Club Award Winners Announced". Adweek. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  6. 1 2 O'Shea, Chris (2016-06-09). "Mirror Award Winners Announced". Adweek. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  7. ↑ Small, Jonathan (2017-11-13). "Ep. 9 — New York Times Culture Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner On Celebrity Profiles, Personal Essays, and Her Bizarre Brush with British Tabloid Fame". Write About Now Podcast. Retrieved 2026-05-10.
  8. ↑ Croatto, Pete (2017-10-27). "The most annoying thing an editor can do". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  9. ↑ Caruso, Debra (2015). "Associated Press Wins New York Press Club's Premier Journalism Award" (PDF). New York Press Club.
  10. ↑ O'Shea, Chris (2015-04-15). "2015 Mirror Awards Finalists Announced". Adweek. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  11. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner". Book Marks. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  12. ↑ Gompertz, Will (27 July 2019). "Fleishman is in Trouble: Will Gompertz reviews Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel ★★☆☆☆". BBC News.
  13. ↑ Knight, India (2019-07-20). "Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner review — 'the novel of the summer'". The Times. Retrieved 2026-05-10.
  14. ↑ Flood, Alison (3 March 2020). "Women's prize for fiction lines up 'heavy hitters' on 2020 longlist". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ Cordero, Rosy (September 23, 2022). "FX's 'Fleishman Is In Trouble' Sets Hulu Premiere Date". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie 2023 - Nominees & Winners Emmy Awards". Television Academy. Retrieved 2026-05-10.
  17. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner". Book Marks. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  18. ↑ Long Island Compromise at Wildfire. July 2024. ISBN 978-1-4722-7303-1.
  19. ↑ Atkins, Lucy (2024-07-12). "Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner review – trials of the wealthy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-05-10.
  20. 1 2 Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2013-07-30). "If Your Name Isn't Jolie-Pitt or Beyoncé Knowles-Carter: To Hyphenate or Ditch the Dash?". Vogue. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  21. ↑ Manges, Alex (July 16, 2024). "An Afternoon with Taffy Brodesser-Akner '97". NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Retrieved 2026-05-10.
  22. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2010-05-27). "Intermarried: My Husband, a Convert, Is More Observant Than I Am". Tablet. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  23. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2018-07-25). "How Goop's Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow's Company Worth $250 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  24. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2025-04-06). "The Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn't Write". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
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