JAMIL SMITH

Fellowship Coach

JAMIL SMITH is a Fellowship Coach with The OpEd Project. He serves as an essayist for the Los Angeles Times. An incisive opinion writer and cultural critic, the Cleveland, Ohio native joined The Times’ newsroom in 2022 after holding senior positions at Rolling Stone, Vox, and the New Republic. Prior to his writing career, he worked in cable news and in sports, earning three Sports Emmy Awards while at NFL Films. In 2019, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded him its prize for arts reporting for his Time cover story about the film “Black Panther.” When Smith isn't writing, he can be found bicycling, mastering his Spanish and French, or teaching himself how to cook.