Carina Chocano Joins Los Angeles Times as Television Critic

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4, 2003 -- Carina Chocano, who most recently served as a critic and staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, has joined the Los Angeles Times as television critic, it was announced by John Montorio, deputy managing editor for features.

Chocano comes to The Times following the retirement in August of Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic Howard Rosenberg.

“Carina’s background with its forays into magazines, books, film and online journalism will allow her to bring a singular perspective and range of experience to an assignment as vast and unrestricted as this one,” said Montorio. “She will open what promises to be an exciting new page in our already distinguished history of television criticism.”

From 1999 to January 2003, Chocano worked at salon.com, where she served as associate editor, senior writer and television critic. Before joining Salon, she was a freelance writer for various children’s educational Web sites and software companies, including Broderbund Software, publisher of the “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?” series.

Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review and Newsday. Several of her humor pieces are featured in the anthology “More Mirth of a Nation,” published in 2002 by HarperCollins. She also is the author of “Do You Love Me, or Am I Just Paranoid?”, a satirical relationship guide published by Villard Books earlier this year.

Chocano earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Northwestern University.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes, including three this year in national reporting, feature writing and feature photography.

The Times publishes five daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a National edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.