Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.
Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby's radio and online stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions, as well as artistic adventurousness— and awesomeness.
Over the last few years, Ulaby has strengthened NPR's television coverage both in terms of programming and industry coverage and profiled breakout artists such as Ellen Page and Skylar Grey and behind-the-scenes tastemakers ranging from super producer Timbaland to James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features. Her stories have included a series on women record producers, an investigation into exhibitions of plastinated human bodies, and a look at the legacy of gay activist Harvey Milk. Her profiles have brought listeners into the worlds of such performers as Tyler Perry, Ryan Seacrest, Mark Ruffalo, and Courtney Love.
Ulaby has earned multiple fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg as well as a fellowship at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism to study youth culture. In addition, Ulaby's weekly podcast of NPR's best arts stories. Culturetopia, won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
Joining NPR in 2000, Ulaby was recruited through NPR's Next Generation Radio, and landed a temporary position on the cultural desk as an editorial assistant. She started reporting regularly, augmenting her work with arts coverage for D.C.'s Washington City Paper.
Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What's Coming Out at the Movies. Her film reviews and academic articles have been published across the country and internationally. For a time, she edited fiction for The Chicago Review and served on the editing staff of the leading academic journal Critical Inquiry. Ulaby taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. She was born in Amman, Jordan, and grew up in the idyllic Midwestern college towns of Lawrence, Kansas and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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The rapper Ye was announced as the headliner for the Wireless Festival in London. He's gained notoriety over the years for his antisemitic comments and activities glorifying Nazis. -
The Writers Guild of America went on strike for months in 2023 in a dispute with Hollywood studios. This year the union announced a new four-year contract after just a few weeks of negotiations. -
Fighting robots is a cultural fantasy going back at least to Richard Matheson's 1956 story "Steel." One Detroit impresario is now bringing the idea to the stage — and real audiences. -
The Pritzker Prize was awarded Thursday. "In every work, he is able to answer with radical originality, making the unobvious obvious," said fellow Chilean architect and prize chair Alejandro Aravena. -
The rapper, who also serves as the official "hype man" for multiple U.S. Olympic teams, invited the female hockey players to Las Vegas for a "real celebration." -
Every year, the National Film Registry adds 25 films to its collection to be preserved for posterity. Selections for 2025 range from The Thing to White Christmas. -
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco track how abortion comes up on television. They say the trends from 2025 are concerning. -
The author, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in late 2022. -
Before its fall from grace, chop suey was a holiday tradition for families who don't celebrate Christmas, even being immortalized in songs and film. -
Escobedo had been leading Kimmel's house band since the show launched in 2003. The musician and the comedian were childhood friends in Las Vegas.
