John Griffiths

Background

About John Griffiths

Us Weekly's Television Critic from 2003 to 2017, John Griffiths is currently Executive Director and founder of the 500 members-strong GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA.org), home to the @DorianAwards for all of film, TV and Broadway / Off-Broadway, mainstream to queer+. He is also founder and point-person for CGEMCritics.org, an alliance of underrepresented entertainment journalists groups seeking improved pay, access and engagement in a relentlessly unstable media world. As an entertainment journalist, John has profiled Nicole Kidman, Angela Bassett, Angela Lansbury, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Garner, Ellen DeGeneres, Charlie Sheen Sandra Bullock and many others for cover stories & features in InStyle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, AARP magazine, etc. John spent seven years as a Special Correspondent for People magazine, interviewing a wide variety of stars—Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ed O'Neill, the late Brandon Lee, etc—over intimate talks in their homes. His profile of Melissa Etheridge and then-wife Julie Cypher became the magazine's first-ever "Couples" feature focused on a queer relationship. In he enjoyed an 11-month stint as Senior Arts & Entertainment Editor at the The Advocate, America's legendary then-biweekly LGBTQ news magazine, under the leadership of groundbreaking editor Judy Wieder. From there, John was named Us Weekly's "marquee" TV critic, juggling his duties for several years booking celebrities as Contributing Editor for Women's Health. Sober since 2003, John for 11 years helped review nominees for the Entertainment Industries Council's Prism Awards, which went to accurate depictions of addiction & mental health issues in film & TV. He was also host/producer of The Hollywood Pitch, a weekly live digital talk show focused on recovery issues in entertainment; guests included Two and a Half Men's Holland Taylor,'80s sitcom icon Jim J. Bullock, Oscar Nunez of The Office and anti-smoking advocate Dr. Stanton Glantz. John was an inaugural member of the Public Awareness Task Force for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, and an advisor to Time's Up's CRITICAL initiative. John has appeared on E! and Extra, and has hosted/moderated panels with the casts and producers of series like Dexter and Cougar Town for Amazon Prime, the Paley Center, LA LGBT Center and Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.