Melissa Silverstein

Melissa Silverstein is a writer with an extensive expertise in the area of women and Hollywood. She is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture.

She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Athena Film Festival -- A Celebration of Women and Leadership -- at Barnard College in NYC. The third annual festival will take place February 7-10, 2013.

Melissa recently published the first book from Women and Hollywood, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, which is a compilation of over 40 interviews that have appeared on the site.

Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC as well as in Newsweek, Salon, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, NY Times, and many other publications. Women and Hollywood was named one of the top 100 websites for women by ForbesWoman in 2012 and 2011. In 2011, Melissa was named one of the Top 100 Arts tweeters by the Times of London and in 2010, she was named one of 10 film critics to follow on twitter by Flavorwire. In 2008, Women and Hollywood was named by More Magazine as one of the "blogs to watch," and in 2009, it was named "Best Hollywood blog" by totalfilm.com.

Melissa has experience working on social media marketing campaigns and events for a variety of films. Recent films include: My Week With Marilyn, The Iron Lady, Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words, 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, and 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 The Washington Post, NY Times, More Magazine, the Women's Media Center, Equality, the Magazine of the Human Rights Campaign, wowOwow, Huffington Post, Zoom in Online, Alternet, Ms. Magazine; ivillage among others. She was a contributor to The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thriller of Our Time.