Jessica Gelt is an arts and culture writer and investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She also co-writes the paper’s twice-weekly Essential Arts newsletter. In her career at the paper she has served as assistant style editor for the Sunday magazine, co-edited the Daily Dish food blog, written a nightlife column called “The Enabler” and regularly covered red carpets and backstage events at the Emmys, Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes. She has penned cultural commentary and reams of celebrity profiles, as well as investigated claims of sexual misconduct in music and the arts. Over the years, she has written in-depth features about theater, television, film, music, movies, books, art, fashion, food, travel and more. Her award-winning work has appeared in the New York Observer, the L.A. Weekly and Vulture, among others.
Latest From This Author
President Trump threatened to block funding for Smithsonian exhibitions that discuss racism and ordered the restoration of monuments taken down because of their celebration of racist figures.
In 1933, the Ebell of Los Angeles commissioned frescoes by renowned muralist Maxine Albro. Two years later — after contentious battle — the frescoes were thought to be destroyed. They have now been rediscovered.
Conan O’Brien received the Mark Twain prize for humor in ceremony that drew Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, David Letterman and Stephen Colbert to the embattled Kennedy Center, setting the stage for Trump zingers.
Hungarian pianist András Schiff and German violinist Christian Tetzlaff cancel upcoming U.S. performances in reaction to Trump-era policies.
A rare West Coast showcase of the work of María Magdalena Campos-Pons, a Desert X dispatch and more arts headlines and happenings.
Kennedy Center contract employee Tavish Forsyth, troubled by President Trump’s takeover of the national arts institution, strips naked and delivers a 35-minute protest poem suggesting that arts leaders nationwide must take a stronger stand. He was promptly fired.
In his first visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since taking over as chairman, President Trump said he never liked ‘Hamilton’ but expected other ‘Broadway hits’ to do quite well.
Trump administration to fire federal art caretakers, leaving public art — including important California pieces — vulnerable.
American Contemporary Ballet favorites, a new solo “Hamlet” and more arts and culture headlines and happenings.