JOURNALIST - EDITOR - PROFESSOR - STORYTELLER

MALLORY CARRA

AVAILABLE FOR ASSIGNMENT

Mallory Carra is an award-winning journalist, editor, producer and professor based in Los Angeles with nearly 20 years of professional experience across digital, audio, and print. She is an adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. For the 2024-25 academic year, Mallory was elected to the USC Annenberg Faculty Advisory Council as the part-time journalism faculty representative.

Outside of teaching, Mallory is a freelance producer and writer, contributing articles to NBCU Academy’s Equity Lab and working on hit podcasts, like former USC provost Charles Zukoski’s Electric Futures, The Why Files, and Sarah Turney’s Voices for Justice. For over 5 years, Carra worked at Spotify’s Parcast Studios, where she worked on more than a dozen of the platform’s top-rated podcasts, including Disappearances, Serial Killers, and Conspiracy Theories.

Additionally, she co-leads the Asian American Journalists Association’s (AAJA) college journalism program, VOICES. She is also a recipient of AAJA’s 2024 Dinah Eng Leadership Fellowship.

As a journalist and editor herself, Mallory has pretty much covered it all: breaking news, entertainment, celebrities, food, lifestyle, e-commerce, real estate, sports, health, and academia for media outlets such as the BBC World Service, E! News, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, the New York Daily News, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among many others. She worked as an entertainment editor at Bustle for over 5 years and began her journalism career in newspapers as a staff writer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee and the News & Observer in North Carolina.

A native of New York City, Mallory has an M.F.A. in screenwriting from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and a B.A. in journalism from New York University. Additionally, she earned a certificate in podcasting from UC Berkeley’s Advanced Media Institute and is an alum of several journalism programs including AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program and the Poynter Institute.

She is a longtime member of the Asian American Journalists Association, the Writers Guild of America, and the Podcasting Academy. She also runs West Coast Media Jobs, a journalism jobs newsletter focusing on California and the Pacific Northwest.

teaching

Teaching, Mentorship, & Speaking

Mallory teaches audio, video and digital journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts.

Mallory has given career talks and spoken on panels at the NYU Wasserman Career Center, the NYU Production Lab, the Asian American Journalists Association convention, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Grand Arts Media Symposium, RomCom Fest, USC Annenberg Media’s Equity Fest, and more.

In 2024, she co-led the Asian American Journalists Association’s college student fellowship program, VOICES, after serving as an editor/mentor in 2023.

teaching

Portfolio

Mallory’s work has appeared in many, many digital media outlets, podcast networks, and newspapers across the country over the past 20 years.

BuzzFeed Community
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Podcasting & Audio

As a freelance writer/producer, Mallory has worked on hit podcasts, such as Sarah Turney’s Voices for Justice, The Why Files, and former USC provost Charles Zukoski’s Electric Futures, focusing on a small Southern California community facing great economic and environmental change.

For over 5 years, Mallory wrote and edited scripted true crime and dark history podcasts for Spotify’s Parcast Studios on a freelance, then full-time basis. She earned a certificate from UC Berkeley’s Advanced Media Institute in Podcasting: Telling Stories in Sound.

Mallory has also contributed work to the BBC World Service’s Outside Source during the #MeToo era and appeared on-mic as a guest several times, including during their Oscars coverage. She has appeared on NPR stations and the LAist Studios podcast, How to LA.

Mallory has taught audio storytelling at USC Annenberg and at AAJA VOICES.

She is available for podcast consulting services.

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celeb

Celebrity Interviews

Mallory has interviewed many, many celebrities throughout her career during one-on-one sit-downs, red carpet premieres, set visits, press events, and film and TV junkets, both on-camera and for print.

Among the celebs she’s interviewed are: Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, Rachel Bloom, Alfre Woodard, Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, Tracy Morgan, Nick Jonas, Casey Wilson, June Diane Raphael, Amy Sedaris, Diane Lane, Constance Zimmer, Dacre Montgomery, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jon Favreau, Vanessa Kirby, Kellie Martin, Ian Ziering, and a lot more.

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projects

Independent Creative Projects

COUCH POTATO COOK

COUCH POTATO COOK

Since 2013, Mallory has been running Couch Potato Cook, which started as a food/pop culture blog, then evolved into a successful food influencer account and Substack publication/podcast. The brand has partnered with brands such as American Express, Walgreens, and Lee Kum Kee and its content has gone viral several times, being featured on Food Network, Teen Vogue, Gizmodo, and more.

VISIT COUCHPOTATOCOOK.COM
WEST COAST MEDIA JOBS

WEST COAST MEDIA JOBS

With over 3,000 subscribers, Mallory’s newsletter focuses on helping journalism job seekers in California and the Pacific Northwest find local and remote open roles in media. It’s sent out every Wednesday through Substack.

Featured in Poynter, Indeed, Contently, and NBCU Academy.

WEST COAST MEDIA JOBS ON SUBSTACK

SCREENWRITING & OTHER CREATIVE WRITING

Mallory graduated USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Writing for Screen and Television from and has written screenplays and teleplays on the side for over a decade. She’ll also occasionally publish a personal essay on Medium.

Mallory is currently working on a mystery/thriller novel.

CREATIVE WRITING WORK
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services

Services

Let’s work together.

Writing & Editing

  • Journalism: Reporting & editing breaking news articles, covering sporting events, red carpets, premieres, junkets & more.
  • Podcasting: Writing clean, engaging scripts for complex true stories
  • Copywriting: Press releases and social media copy

Consulting & Coaching

  • Career development coaching for students and early to mid-career journalists
  • Editorial and newsroom consulting
  • Podcast development, producing, writing, & consulting
  • Resume and LinkedIn reviews
services

Let's Connect

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Get In Touch

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