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
Composer and jazzman Kamasi Washington will perform with 100 musicians inside LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries in June — the public’s first chance at a sneak peak inside the new Peter Zumthor-designed building.
The Altadena theater students who rose up after the Eaton fire; plus L.A. arts and culture this week
Students from Altadena Magnet and Eliot Arts Magnet performed at the Ahmanson Theatre after their school burned in the Eaton fire.
Arts Open San Pedro, Chanel’s CalArts collaboration, a staged reading fundraiser for reproductive justice and more arts headlines and happenings.
Pianist Alessandro Martire uses natural settings to elevate his music, whether playing in Italy’s lakes region, on a snowy hillside of the Alps or in the Australian desert. On Sunday he’ll play at L.A.’s Barnsdall Art Park.
Filmmaker John Waters turns 79 with a show at the Wallis. The legendary king of bad taste talks about drag queens, Elon Musk’s daughter Vivian, Melania Trump’s Christmas decorations and more.
The kids of Altadena’s Eliot Arts Magnet lost the theater where they were to perform their spring musical, “Shrek Jr.” Thanks to Center Theatre Group and Pasadena Playhouse, the students got a substitute stage: the 2,100-seat Ahmanson Theatre.
PBS brings the arts to American living rooms via programs such as “American Masters” and “Great Performances”; funding cuts could change that.
The Getty Center’s hands-on exhibition, Erik Gernand’s small-town-set play, a tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman and more arts headlines and happenings.
Classical music to calm your fried nerves? Give it a try
Altadena’s jazz scene, new murals at the California Science Center, a new name for the Huntington and more arts headlines and happenings.