About liz newman
I was born in the freezing cold on an August day in Houston, Texas. But only because hospitals are always cold. I can only assume my first two years of life there is behind my deep love of hot sauce and ripped faded jeans. I was raised in Tampa, Florida, where I smoked my first cigar with my grandfather at six years old (don't judge, I'm the product of a cigar factory family), and was a "lifer" at St. Mary's Episcopal Day School before attending Berkeley Preparatory School. From there, I decided to swap the swamp for peaches by attending University of Georgia, meaning you will never convince me Athens isn't the best college town on the planet.
After graduating with a degree in Journalism and Communications, I took an internship in New York City because that's what college grads in their early 20s do until their parents cut them off. And when that inevitably happened, I moved to South Florida and worked in advertising and public relations before finally making the leap of faith to become what I had always wanted: a writer. I had a column entitled "One Night Stand" (not that kind!) for Miami Herald, for which I recommended the best nights to visit lounges, clubs and restaurants in the Magic City. From there, it was off to NBC where I launched a celebrity column called "Niteside", during which I conducted red carpet interviews with a flip cam for tons of really famous people I tried really hard to keep my cool in front of including the Kardashian clan, Jay-Z and Beyonce as well Olivie Newton John and LeBron James. This caught the eye of Us Weekly, for which I was also a contributor. I was pretty pumped about that since I read it religiously.
I left my celebrity stalking days behind to team up with two other writers to launch NBC's The Feast, a premier lifestyle site focusing on where to "Eat", "Drink" and "Play." That job gave me the experience and final degree in "hustle" to land the Miami Editor role at Thrillist, during which my mission was to nab the exclusive on every new restaurant and bar opening on the city -- in other words, I was still a stalker at h
More than two years later, I got the itch to move back to New York, where I worked at Thrillist HQ as a staff writer until I decided digital marketing content was the future; I became the first ever social media manager at Perry Ellis. Many digital and content strategy director roles followed, both corporate and start-up, during my nearly 5-year stint in Manhattan. I transitioned into spearheading branded content for corporate brands, including conceptualizing and executing all of the written and social media content for Patrón Spirits.
Throughout all of these jobs, and there were A LOT, my editorial writing never wavered and is ultimately my first love. I'm still a contributing editor to Thrillist and Bustle, and write for Time Out NYC, Tasting Table, and Fatherly among others.
In short, I worked my ever-living tail off to get every ounce of experience I moved to New York to receive. So naturally, when I got it, I finally decided to move back to Tampa to take a nap and join a tennis league. One day, I will finally write the book I've been trying to write for years. Dammit, I will!
This was a long bio, but it's my site -- so whatever.
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