Samuels, Allison

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Samuels, Allison

PERSONAL:

Born in Augusta, GA; daughter of Cassie Samuels West. Education: Clark Atlanta University, B.A., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

CAREER:

Journalist and author. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, reporter, 1989-92; Quincy Jones Entertainment, Los Angeles, researcher 1992-94; Newsweek, Los Angeles, researcher, 1994-96, national correspondent, 1996—. Member of board of directors, University of California, Los Angeles Black Studies Department.

MEMBER:

National Association of Black Journalists, Big Sisters of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Association of Black Journalists Award (corecipient), 1997, for Newsweek article, "Black Like Who?"

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Christmas Soul: African American Holiday Stories, illustrated by Michele Wood, Jump at the Sun (New York, NY), 2001.

Off the Record: A Reporter Unveils the Celebrity Worlds of Hollywood, Hip Hop, & Sports, Amistad/HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Allison Samuels, an award-winning journalist, is the author of Off the Record: A Reporter Unveils the Celebrity Worlds of Hollywood, Hip Hop, & Sports. In the work, which is based on a series of interviews the author conducted for Newsweek, Samuels profiles a number of African American musicians, actors, and athletes, including Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, and Michael Jordan. "I tried to pick people who had a story to tell," Samuels told Samantha Ofole in an interview for the African American Film Critics Association. She added, "A lot of the stories that I put in [Off the Record] were stories that didn't make it into the entire Newsweek piece. I felt like there was a lot of interesting information which didn't fit the story."

Off the Record received generally strong reviews. The book's "main draw is the insider observations and anecdotes," observed a critic in Publishers Weekly. Keris Stainton, writing in Trashionista.com, praised Samuels's "revealing stories" about Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, and Whoopi Goldberg. Samuels is "alternately star-struck and chilly to her subjects," noted Diversity News contributors Anne Haenni and Rick Pezzner, "able to see beyond the gossipy hype to talk to the ‘real’ star, and yet brutally willing to discuss things her subjects would probably just as soon forget." "Samuels makes her writing both personal and available," observed Experience LA Blog reviewer Mary Emerita Montoro. "She provides the sense that the reader is sitting right next to her as she connects with all her subjects."