Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.
Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby's stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions.
A twenty-year veteran of NPR, Ulaby started as a temporary production assistant on the cultural desk, opening mail, booking interviews and cutting tape with razor blades. Over the years, she's also worked as a producer and editor and won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for hosting a podcast of NPR's best arts stories.
Ulaby also hosted the Emmy-award winning public television series Arab American Stories in 2012 and earned a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She's also been chosen for fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.
Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What's Coming Out at the Movies. A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby has contributed to academic journals and taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. But her first appearance in print was when she was only four days old. She was pictured on the front page of the New York Times, as a refugee, when she and her parents were evacuated from Amman, Jordan, during the conflict known as Black September.
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Shane MacGowan was a famously hard-drinking but brilliant musician who shot to fame in the 1980s with the folk punk band The Pogues. -
After months of delay the criminal trial of actor Jonathan Majors has gotten started with jury selection. His meteoric Hollywood career has been sidetracked by charges of assault and harassment.
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With a plum role as Marvel villain, Jonathan Majors' stardom seemed certain, until an alleged altercation with a girlfriend derailed his Hollywood career. The actor's trial has started in New York. -
CBS first aired the televised holiday special in 1973. The message still shines, but some characters and scenes feel a little dated. -
Around 250 young playwrights wrote and submitted work as part of the annual contest, Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence. Six were chosen as finalists and had their work performed. -
After half a century, The Exorcist is still considered one of the scariest movies ever made. But one priest says it's a movie deeply concerned with faith, and responding to evil. -
Jonathan Majors was arrested after an alleged domestic dispute in March. The Creed III actor pleaded not guilty to four counts. His trial has been rescheduled. -
Private eye John Shaft was a new kind of figure in film: unapologetically Black with swagger. He clapped back at white cops, he busted mobsters, and helped create the entire genre of Blaxploitation.
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Naked Attraction and Sex/Life are among the shows on streaming television using uncensored nudity, including men seen full-frontal, to create buzz and attract subscribers. -
A 24-year-old piano prodigy, Jahari Stampley, has won one of the most prestigious awards in jazz. The competition held by the Herbie Hancock Institute is widely seen as anointing new stars.
