Bio

Melissa Silverstein is a writer, blogger and marketing consultant.  She is an expert in the area of social media regarding women and Hollywood.  She is the founder and editor of Women & Hollywood one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture.  She has been featured on CNN as well as in Newsweek, Salon, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, NY Times, and many other publications.  In 2010, Melissa was named one of 10 film critics to follow on twitter by Flavorwire.  In 2008, it was named by More Magazine as one of the “blogs to watch,” and in 2009, it was named “Best Hollywood blog” by totalfilm.com.

She is currently producing and creating the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in NYC which will celebrate women’s leadership.  The Festival will launch in February 2011.

Over the last several years, Melissa has created social media marketing campaigns and events for a variety of films.  Recent films include: Dancing Across Borders, Bright Star, The Boys are Back, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Cheri, Sunshine Cleaning, Last Chance Harvey, Revolutionary Road, Hounddog, The Duchess, A Previous Engagement, Then She Found Me, The Business of Being Born, Becoming Jane, Bend it Like Beckham, The Hours.

She has also worked on several high profile public education campaigns including Take Our Daughters to Work Day and the Pro Choice Public Education Project, and she was the founding project director for The White House Project and prior to that was the chief of Staff at the Ms. Foundation for Women.  She is on the advisory boards of the Women’s Media Center and Women, Action & Media (WAM!) and is a member of NY Women in Film and TV.

Her writing has been featured in More Magazine, the Women’s Media Center, wowOwow, Huffington Post, Zoom in Online, Alternet, Ms. Magazine; Swing; ivillage; Oxygen, and Pop & Politics, among others. She is currently expanding the work of her blog into a full length book on Women & Hollywood.