Joel Stein grew up in Edison, N.J., and went to Stanford. From 1997-2017 he was a staff writer for
Time magazine, writing a regular humor column and more than a dozen cover stories; he was also the back page columnist for
Entertainment Weekly and the opinion section of
The Los Angeles Times. He has contributed to
Bloomberg Businessweek,
GQ,
Esquire, the
New Yorker,
Food & Wine,
Travel + Leisure, The New York Times Book Review, Elle, and
Men's Health. Stein was a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton and has appeared as a talking head on television shows such as
Real Time with Bill Maher,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and VH1's
I Love The '80s. He's interviewed celebrities for HBO, Cinemax, and Comedy Central. In addition to writing on staff for two television shows, he created an animated show for VH1 (
Hey Joel) and wrote six network pilots. His 2012 book,
Man Made: A Stupid Quest For Masculinity, was a bestseller, and Fox hired him to adapt it as a film script. He's currently writing for the upcoming show
American Princess produced by Jenji Kohan -- best known as the creator of Showtime comedy-drama series
Weeds and Netflix series
Orange is the New Black.