Joelle Monique

Joelle Monique is a Los Angeles-based managing executive podcast producer, award-winning pop culture critic, filmmaker, and webcomic co-creator whose work spans the full breadth of genre entertainment journalism. A Chicago native now rooted in LA, she is currently Managing Executive Producer and host at iHeart Podcasts. As a culture critic and journalist, her bylines appear at The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, Vulture, Teen Vogue, Playboy, The AV Club, Polygon, The Wrap, Rotten Tomatoes, Paste Magazine, Broadly, The Advocate, and Den of Geek, among others, with a consistent focus on LGBTQ+ representation, people of color in genre media, and indie comics coverage. In comics, she is the co-creator and writer of the webcomic Harsh Mellow and has written criticism and creator spotlights for Black Girl Nerds. Her filmmaking work includes writing and directing the short film Illuminated. Monique has also contributed to NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and has been a consistent voice amplifying Black, queer, and underrepresented creators across every medium she covers.