Our members

Close

Mirai Konishi

Japan

Japanese-born Journalist and Filmmaker Mirai Konishi has worked in the en-tertainment industry for over 25 years. After earning a BA in English and American Literature at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Konishi moved to Los Angeles in 1995 to study Film Production at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California.

He began his journalistic career in Los Angeles in 1996 when Weekly Young Jump, a popular manga magazine in Japan offered him a chance to interview the stars and filmmakers of a Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery action film, The Rock. Although journalism wasn’t his career goal, Konishi realized it offered an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the art of film as well as the machinations of the entertainment industry. After earning an MA in Fine Arts in Filmmaking, he became a Los Angeles correspondent for CUT maga-zine in 1999, and went on to interview the biggest stars in Hollywood which included one-on-ones with auteurs such as Steven Soderbergh, David Finch-er, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan. At the same time, he wrote columns and industry news for EIGA.COM, Japan’s number one movie news site.

Since he joined the HFPA in 2011, Konishi expanded his field by appearing as a regular interviewer and commentator for Japan’s national morning show ZIP! In 2015, he released his first documentary feature, “Kampai! For the Love of Sake” which explores sake rice wine through the perspective of the people who have made it their obsession. It premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and went to Tokyo and Hawaii international film festivals, among others. He followed up in 2019 with its sequel, “Kampai! Sake Sisters.” At the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, he reported from the red carpet for WOWOW, one of Japan’s premium channels.

Close

Danielle Kool

The Netherlands

Born and raised in Amsterdam, Kool completed her MA in Communications at the University of Amsterdam, in 2001. After finishing her degree, she began working for the national daily newspaper, Metro, as a staff writer covering entertainment, news, and culture for over four years. She then held the title of Editor-in-Chief of Zone magazines, four weekly news and entertainment guides. She parlayed her writing skills and began working for a communications agency as an editorial manager. Returning to journalism in 2008, she took on the role of Managing Editor Entertainment of national newspaper Sp!ts and was promoted to Deputy Editor. In 2013, Kool relocated to Los Angeles where she continued to work for Sp!ts as well as other outlets in the Netherlands such as the national newspaper De Telegraaf, film magazine Preview, TV guides Veronica Superguide and Totaal TV and women’s magazine Grazia. Kool joined the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in the fall of 2020.

Close

Elisa Leonelli

Italy

Born in Modena, Italy, Elisa Leonelli graduated summa cum laude from the University of Bologna with a thesis about French novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. She then worked as a photo-journalist on assignment for international and American publications, such as Time, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Westways, Zoom, Panorama, Espresso, Grazia and Vogue; she also created a photo book about the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Leonelli served as film editor for Venice, the Los Angeles Arts and Entertainment magazine; earned a masters degree in critical studies from USC School of Cinematic Arts, and published the essay Robert Redford and the American West. Leonelli has interviewed movie stars, television actors and film directors as Los Angeles correspondent for Italian magazines: Europeo, Epoca, Marie Claire, Ciak, Donna Moderna, Gioia, Myself, Glamour, and the Spanish film monthly Cinemanía. Currently she is a regular contributor to Italian monthlies Best Movie and Voilà. She covers the arts, movies, television and photography for the international online publication Cultural Daily. A Golden Globes voter since 1979, Leonelli has researched biographies, listed film releases, handled film festivals, conceived and executed a comprehensive plan to create digital archives of transcripts, membership directories, Golden Globe programs, Golden Globe photos, and press-conference headshots. She has contributed articles to the Golden Globes website, such as profiles of legendary movie stars, history of the HFPA, capsules of foreign films, profiles of Golden Globe nominees, one-on-one interviews, and features about TV programs. She also has edited a weekly column of archival quotes by actors and directors about relevant contemporary themes.

Close

Gabriel Lerman

Argentina

Born in Argentina in 1962, Gabriel Lerman studied literature and anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires. He has enjoyed a successful career as a journalist over the last 30 years living in Los Angeles. During this time, he has worked as the LA correspondent for many outlets in Spain and Latin America, including the daily newspaper, La Vanguardia from Barcelona, as well as such magazines as Dirigido Por and Ethic from Spain, Estilo from Honduras, and Acción from Argentina. He regularly interviews directors and actors from Latin America and Spain for the website GoldenGlobes.com. From 1991 to 2008, Lerman was Managing Editor for the Los Angeles-based weeklies Variedades, Mundo LA and La Guia. Lerman was also a contributor for many prestigious outlets including La Nacion, Pagina 12 and La Capital from Argentina, El Pais from Uruguay, Ultimas Noticias and La Epoca from Chile, Reforma, Público and La Jornada from Mexico, and El Comercio from Ecuador. He also wrote for the magazines Maxim’s and Tres Puntos from Argentina, Access and In from Chile, as well as Cinemania, Esquire, and Life & Style from Mexico. Additionally, Lerman regularly contributed to Costa Rica’s Fem magazine, and Telva and Imágenes de Actualidad from Spain. As a domestic journalist, Lerman regularly freelanced for the newspapers El Nuevo Herald from Miami, Hoy from New York and Rumbo in San Antonio, Texas. Other magazines include Selecciones del Reader’s Digest and People en Español. Since 2004 he has been a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, where he is now serving on the Board of Directors. In 1988, Lerman was nominated for the International Media Award presented by the Publicists Guild of America and received twelve awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications. Prior to moving to the United States, in 1989, Lerman contributed to the Argentinian dailies Clarín and Sur, and the magazines El Periodista, Satiricón, Caras y Caretas, Humor and Siete Días.

In Argentina, Lerman published two books of interviews and a children’s book, “The SEDIM Project.” His unpublished novel, “The Inhabitants of the Mirror,” was awarded the second prize by the sole juror, Adolfo Bioy Casares, in the First Bienal de Arte Joven in 1989.

Close

Yulia Lolo

Russia

ulia Lolo was born in Kazan, Russia and earned her BA in Film History and Criticism at VGIK (Russian State Institute of Cinema), the oldest film school in the world, founded in Moscow in 1919. Lolo earned her MBA in Marketing in 2011 from the IBDA (Institute of Business Studies under the Russian Academy of Economics) and then devoted her time to applying her detailed professional knowledge into a more immersive study of film history and distribution in the entertainment industry. Lolo has been living in the USA since 2015 and is online columnist for Tatler Russia, which boasts 1.5 million unique users. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) member has been a Hollywood correspondent for OK! Russia – the top print magazine in Russia – for six years and also writes for InStyle Russia, KinoPoisk and KinoReporter, the former Russian edition of The Hollywood Reporter.

Close

Ramzy Malouki

France, Tunisia

France-Tunisia
News Reporter, Producer & Media Consultant

Ramzy Malouki is an award-winning news reporter and producer based in Los Angeles. He currently serves as the News Bureau Chief for CNEWS, France’s leading 24-hour news channel and part of the Canal+ Group. Over the years, he has reported on more than 2,500 stories across the U.S., covering breaking news, politics, sports, and entertainment.

He is also the host and producer of L.A. Confidentiel, a weekly infotainment program offering a unique perspective on Hollywood. The show airs in France, Belgium, and French-speaking Africa on CINE+/OCS and the Canal+ platform. In addition, Ramzy acts as a consultant and field trainer for Tahiti Nui Television, the main public broadcaster in French Polynesia.

Born and raised in Tunisia, Ramzy began his career at age 17 as a DJ on Europe 2, a major French radio network. He transitioned one year later to television, hosting music shows on RTL-Télévision in Luxembourg and M6 in France.

After graduating from the French School of Journalism, he left medical school to join France 5, where he worked as a field reporter for the evening news and later as a correspondent for their weekly magazine in the Middle East.

Fluent in five languages, Ramzy is also a seasoned international MC, hosting global events from film festivals to world summits.

He shares his unique journey in a program called PLAN B, where he reflects on managing a dual path — balancing medical studies while having a media career — and how he now navigates between hard news and entertainment.

Close

Michele Manelis

Australia

Australian-born journalist Michele Manelis grew up in Melbourne where she began her career as a music publicist. She later moved to Sydney for several years before relocating to Los Angeles in 1990 to continue her career in journalism, writing for such outlets as Rolling Stone, Vogue, Elle, GQ, and Marie Claire.

Manelis’ interviews have also been published in Australian textbooks for students studying journalism. Manelis was also the US Correspondent for MCM, Australia’s largest radio syndication group where she regularly contributed on-air Hollywood reports as well as conducted interviews each week which were heard across hundreds of radio stations.

She also contributed to a national TV show, Recovery, in which she interviewed music artists from around the world. More recently, her work can be found through the News Corp Australia Network, Mindfood magazine, and the New Zealand Herald.

Close

Juliette Michaud

France

Juliette Michaud is a French movie journalist and author. She started to work for Studio Magazine in 1990, when she was 23, first as an assistant, then as a movie critic. Before that, she took film writing classes in Paris with historian and film critic Jean Douchet. In 1997, she moved to Los Angeles to become Studio Magazine’s (which later became Studio Ciné-live) correspondent for 20 years. She wrote reviews, on set reportages, in-depth interviews with Hollywood talents, and met all the greats and legends like Kirk Douglas and Shirley MacLaine whom she interviewed at their homes. She was also a long-time correspondent for L’Officiel de la Mode (equivalent of Vogue), and for Prestigium.com, a branch of Le monde. She currently writes for PalaceScope, a cultural high-end magazine based in Paris. Juliette Michaud is the author of “Once Upon a Time Hollywood,” a book/encyclopedia prefaced by Michel Hazanavicius (Flammarion) published in 2013 and translated in English, about Hollywood’s 100 hundred years. In September 2021, she released a book about Paul Newman (La Martiniere), titled “Paul Newman” with a foreword by Charlotte Rampling. achievement.

Close

Yukiko Nakajima

Japan

Yukiko Nakajima was born in the north of Japan and raised in Tokyo. After finishing her degree in French Literature in Tokyo, she moved to London to further her English language proficiency and remained in Europe for another four years. When she returned to Japan, she started working for Shueisha Publishing Company, one of the largest publishing companies in Japan, working as a translator of English articles for numerous publications like Playboy’s Japanese Edition. In 1978, she moved to Los Angeles to work at the company’s LA bureau until 1985. Nakajima’s love of the city and the industry compelled her to stay as she continued to work for the publishing company as a Hollywood correspondent for its iconic movie magazine, Roadshow. Nakajima continues to work with Shueisha as an online columnist, writing about film for their online outlet, Our Age. At the beginning of 2022, Nakajima will serve as a contributing writer from Hollywood to the iconic Roadshow magazine, which will return as part of Shueisha’s entertainment division.

Close

Yoko Narita

Japan

Yoko Narita was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her first name means “child of the sun.” She attended Toyo Eiwa Girls School where she received the highest level of recognition as a student, and later graduated from Seikei University in Tokyo, majoring in politics and economics. Yoko worked for a magazine publishing company as a sportswriter and translator. In 1978, she moved to Los Angeles as a foreign correspondent for The Hochi Shimbun, one of the largest sport newspapers in Japan. During that time, she covered three Olympic Games, three Super Bowls, four World Series, and numerous other big sports events. In 1980, she received the newspaper’s President Award for breaking the story on Akira Fuse and Olivia Hussey’s wedding in Miami, Florida. In 1985, Yoko became the first Asian member of the HFPA. Around this time, she published a book, “All About UCLA.” Since 1990, she has been a freelance writer and has been writing articles on actors, directors as well as big Hollywood events for publications like Kinema Junpo (bi-monthly), Screen Magazine Japan (monthly) and the Bungei Shunju (monthly).

Close

Juan Manuel Navarro

Mexico

Juan Manuel Navarro is a journalist and author with 30 years of experience in TV, editorial and radio outlets. He’s currently the Los Angeles entertainment correspondent for TELEVISA network which has over 300 million viewers. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2001, Navarro has collaborated with various outlets such as El Universal and Reforma, LA Times en Español newspapers and magazines such as Quien, CARAS, TV y Novelas, ERES and Tele-Guia, among others. He is also an independent TV producer for the West coast for the Univision morning show Despierta America. He has written three bestselling books about the life of Mexican singers Luis Miguel and Juan Gabriel. His book “Luis Mi Rey” (about Luis Miguel’s early life) was a collaboration with the Spanish writer Javier Leon Herrera. The bestseller was used for the first season of Luis Miguel on Netflix. He has interviewed over 500 celebrities in his career and has attended film festivals including Cannes, Venice, Toronto and Florence.

Close

Jânio Nazareth

Brazil

Janio Nazareth has been working with Cinepop.com.br for approximately ten years, producing movie-related video reports. He was born in Bom Jesus do Itabapoana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and graduated with a degree in Communications and Journalism, from Universidade de Brasilia, Unb. He did his internship with Jornal do Brasil and went on to work with O Globo, Globo tv in Brasilia, and Manchete tv, in Rio de Janeiro. For the past 16 years, Nazareth has worked for a number of entertainment shows with Bandeirantes tv and SBT tv based in Los Angeles.

Close

Janet Susan R. Nepales

Philippines

Janet Susan R. Nepales is an award-winning journalist and the first Filipina voting member and Associate of the Golden Globe Awards.

She has been a member since 2008 and has held various positions in the association as an officer and board member and became the first Filipina Executive Secretary and Treasurer. She was an executive producer of Golden Globes for four consecutive years. She was nominated for an Emmy Award as Executive Producer of the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2019 for the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category.

She is a Hollywood columnist and correspondent of GMA-7 and Asian Journal, the author of the coffee table book FASHION. Filipino. Hollywood. The World, and the co-author of the first Filipina Women’s Network book entitled DISRUPT: Filipina Women: Proud. Loud. Leading Without A Doubt.

Janet is a Founding Member of the Golden Globe Foundation (GGF) and has been a member of the Golden Globe Foundation Grant Program Task Force since August 2024.

Janet was elected last August 2024 as the first Filipina to be on the Golden Globe Advisory Board.

She is also a Board Member of the SOHO International Film Festival NYC, and the Asian World International Film Festival.

She won the Silver Telly Award at The Telly Awards for the I Dream of the Philippines campaign for the Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the Miss Filipina International (MFI) in the Travel and Tourism – Promotional Video category in August 2024.

Based in Los Angeles, Janet is a University of Santo Tomas (UST) Journalism cum laude graduate who was also managing editor of the university paper, The Varsitarian, and editor-in-chief of the College of Arts & Letters’ school magazine, The Flame. She graduated valedictorian from Quezon City High School where she was also editor-in-chief of the school paper, The Capitol.

Janet was recognized by the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) as one of the “100 Most Influential Filipino Women in the U.S.” in 2012 and one of the “100 Most Influential Filipino Women in the World” in 2013.

She is a consistent nominee and winner in the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual Southern California Journalism Awards and the annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards (NAEJ).

Janet received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. at The Outstanding Filipinos in America (TOFA) Awards held last September 16, 2022, in New York.

She was awarded “Journalist of the Year” by the Filipino American Press Club of California (FAPCCA) in 2022 and received a Certificate of Recognition as Journalist/Author from Senator Susan Rubio, 22nd District.

She has covered and attended several film festivals around the world, including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Cartagena, Cinemalaya, Tokyo, Sundance, Shanghai, Beijing, among others.

She has been featured twice on CNN Philippines and has appeared in various TV shows in Los Angeles as a guest.

Janet has been featured as a guest speaker in various forums and panels and was also featured in Paul Quinn’s book “The Big Ask.”

She is married to journalist Ruben V. Nepales with whom she has two daughters – Bianca Nicole and Rafaella Angelica.

Close

Ruben V. Nepales

Philippines

Based in Los Angeles, Ruben V. Nepales is an award-winning journalist whose honors include nine first prizes from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, a U.S.-wide competition, and the Southern California Journalism Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Press Club.

In December 2025, Nepales’ popular “Only IN Hollywood” found a new home on Inquirer.net USA, the most visited online news site in the Philippines and one of the most respected news sites in Asia. The column ran for 15 years on Philippine Daily Inquirer and then five years on Rappler.

The Philippine-born and raised writer won first prize in non-fiction for “Through a Writer’s Lens,” a coffee table book of photos and excerpts from his entertainment interviews, at the 2020-2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.

In 2012, Ruben published his first book, “My Filipino Connection: The Philippines in Hollywood,” which won in the print journalism – book category of the Migration Advocacy and Media Awards presented by the Office of the President of the Philippines’ Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

In September 2022, the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. was awarded to Ruben at The Outstanding Filipinos in America (TOFA) Awards held in New York.

A proud native of Calasiao, Pangasinan, Philippines, Ruben is married to journalist Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales, with whom he has two daughters, Bianca Nicole and Rafaella Angelica.

Close

Scott Orlin

United States

Born in Atlanta, Scott Orlin began his journey into the world of film at the tender age of 15 when he was hired to work at the neighborhood Emory Theater. After viewing the film The Getaway 18 times during the week he was employed, (apparently local law mandated a minimum working age of 16, who knew?), the experience ignited a passion that was later fulfilled when he signed on to become the American correspondent for the German film publication Cinema Magazine, which is Europe’s largest. With over three decades of journalism, his coverage has included innumerable set visits, filmmaker interviews and general articles encompassing various aspects of the entertainment industry. During his tenure, Orlin also worked on such in-house publications as Kino, Video Plus and TV Spielfilm. In addition, he supplies video content for the publication’s online edition and has worked with Pro 7 assisting in their Oscar coverage for the past 20 years. Prior to his journalistic endeavors, he worked for ASCAP, Talia Film as well as composer David Shire, where he served as the award-winning composer’s assistant on the Broadway musical “Baby.” He is the recipient of the Publicist Guild’s International Journalist of the Year Award.

Close

Ruben Peralta-Rigaud

Dominican Republic

Rubén Peralta Rigaud was born in Santo Domingo in 1980. A medical doctor by profession and a film critic, he hosted a daily radio program called Cineasta Radio for three years with Don Armando Almanzar, a pioneer of film critique in Latin America. Peralta Rigaud has been a contributor to the print magazine Cineasta since 2010 and editor/writer of the cocalecas.net portal since 2004. He gives talks on film assessment and was part of the jury of the Miami Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Los Cabos International Film Festival, Dominican Film Festival, ENFOQUE Short Film Festival in Puerto Rico, National Film Festival in Saudi Arabia and Dominican Global Festival. He also co-hosts the film podcast Erase una vez en el Cine which can be found on any online platform. He has covered the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Dominican Global Film Festival as a critic. He has been the main writer of Sensacine since 2017, and – through FIPRESCI – has been a contributor to various international media in India, England and Australia. He has been a guest lecturer for Generation Z Film Critics at Stanford University in the United States. Since 2014, Peralta Rigaud has been a film critic for Listin Diario, the oldest newspaper in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.

Close

Gerardo Prat

United States

Born in Argentina, Gerardo Prat started as a radio news announcer and journalist at the age of 17. He worked as a news anchor, reporter, and producer in mainstream media in Argentina, Spain and Los Angeles, CA, writing for Antena3 and Diario el País, among others.

Since 2002, he has covered hundreds of entertainment events, premieres, and press junkets in Hollywood and film festivals for dozens of Hispanic media outlets worldwide and currently for Hola TV (Spain), ATB (Bolivia), and Teleantillas (Dominican Republic).

Prat also graduated as an announcer (COSAL) and became AVO voice talent in Los Angeles. He regularly records promos, dubbing and audiobooks and is the most published audiobook narrator in Latin American Spanish Language. He was chosen as the official Spanish voice of the Pope in Pope Francis’ books.

As a media entrepreneur, Prat founded two news companies for which he established production, administration, and strategic alliances to create and distribute news content worldwide.

Prat participated as a lecturer in many countries in Latin America invited by the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung, which published books and articles on topics like journalistic investigation and think tanks, all authored by him. He has an MA in Journalism from El Salvador University.

Close

Mico Saad

Dubai

Mico Saad is the first Egyptian TV host in Hollywood. His shows air on major tv stations in the Middle East such as Dubai TV, CBC TV, It’s Showtime, Alghad TV and Ten TV.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he studied social science. Saad then moved to London at a young age, where he hosted a TV show for several years interviewing celebrities, experts and business owners, and reporting from locations around the UK and Europe to audiences all over the Arabic world. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in Hollywood for his show including Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis, Letitia Wright, Charlie Cox, Aamir Khan, Mario Kassar, Josh O’Connor, and Omar Khairat.

Saad became the first Egyptian journalist to cover the BAFTA Awards and Academy Awards. In 2018, he moved to Hollywood to host his newest show that focuses on documenting and celebrating the success of Arabs in Hollywood.

Close

Ali Sar

Türkiye

Ali Sar is the special correspondent for the Moscow Times, an independent English language newspaper in Russia. In print until 2015, it changed to online to increase the number of pages and is especially popular among foreign citizens residing in Moscow and English-speaking Russians.

Sar has also covered entertainment for international publications in Turkey and Argentina. He has been a long-time journalist in Southern California. A native of Istanbul, he is the immediate past president of the HFPA and has also previously served as board chair, vice president and treasurer.

In addition, he served as managing editor of the Los Angeles Daily News and he was a news executive of Thomson Newspapers’ Southern California Group. Sar also was president of the Los Angeles Press Club for two terms.

Close

Frances Schoenberger

Germany

Frances Schoenberger has covered the entertainment industry for Germany since she arrived in NYC in 1969. Her first assignment, reporting on Woodstock, was followed by years of covering the rock ‘n’ roll scene extensively for Germany’s Bravo magazine traveling all over the States. KISS took her on their Japan tour as a token of their appreciation for starting their career with their first cover in Germany. She spent one day with John Lennon in NYC. That intimate interview was published all over the world and was reprinted in the book “Lennon on Lennon – Conversations with John Lennon” (Chicago Review Press Incorporated, 2017). Schoenberger served as bureau chief for Burda publications (11 magazines) and West Coast correspondent for Stern magazine. Her articles appeared in the most prestigious media outlets in Germany from Vogue and Welt am Sonntag, Der Spiegel to Vanity Fair. Cosmopolitan published her 10-page in-depth interview with author Charles Bukowski. She interviewed Charles Manson for Germany’s largest daily Bild Zeitung. Her exclusive TV specials about Dynasty and Dallas for ZDF were highly rated and written about. She is a weekly contributor to Germany’s mdr radio and a regular commentator for Brisant TV. Her memoir “Barefoot in Hollywood” not only portrays the Hollywood community as regular human beings with strengths and weaknesses but also takes an unapologetic view of the realities of a Hollywood career.

Close

Elisabeth Sereda

United States

Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, Elisabeth Sereda got an early start on her career as a radio DJ at age 15. She had her first article, on the 1980’s Peace Movement, published when she was 16 years old, and for the next five years worked in Vienna as a print, radio and TV reporter in news and entertainment with an emphasis on music and film. At 18, she was the first European journalist to interview Yoko Ono after John Lennon’s passing. Her articles appeared in German Cosmopolitan, Kurier and on Austrian radio.

Sereda moved to L.A. at 21 and began specializing in film journalism, continuing in broadcast media for ORF and Ö3, Austrian national public service broadcasters. She also had articles published in Austrian newspapers Kurier and Krone, specialized film magazines like SKIP magazine as well as several others in Austria and Germany.

She is the author of two non-fiction books “Starporträt” (1999) and “Hollywood Backstage” (2007).

Sereda has been nominated for the International Media Award by the Publicists Guild numerous times.

She currently writes for the daily Kurier, the magazine Funke One and the broadcast corporation ORF.

Close

Asel Sherniyazova

Kyrgyzstan

Asel Sherniyazova currently works as a journalist for AKIpress news agency, the first independent news agency in the Kyrgyz Republic which represents the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with a combined population of nearly 76 million.

Over the past few years, she has provided the outlet with numerous film reviews which have included the multi-award-winning thriller Parasite, the acclaimed drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, the features Disobedience, Bad Education, The White Tiger and the action/thriller Nobody.

Sherniyazova has also written many articles on the film and entertainment industry, for example, the rapid development of online streaming and the difference between distributors and aggregators. In addition, she has conducted online interviews for the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF), Russian actor Kiril Karo and German-Turkish actress Meryem Uzerli, and written regular analytical reports on the US and international box office opening weekend figures.

As well as being an acclaimed journalist in Central Asia, Sherniyazova is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of the AWFF in Los Angeles and became a member of the HFPA in October 2021.

Close

Gabriel Silva Lamboglia

Uruguay

Gabriel Silva Lamboglia has worked as an entertainment reporter for Channel 10 Uruguay (SAETA TV Canal 10), a free-to-air television channel based in Montevideo, which was founded in 1956 by Raul Fontaina as the first TV broadcaster in the country and the fourth in Latin America. Silva was born in Montevideo. He has lived in Southern California for 32 years and as the US-correspondent for the channel, has covered the entertainment industry in Hollywood with an emphasis on film and television.

In addition, he has worked for the daily newspaper El Pais of Uruguay.

Close

Brent Simon

Germany

An award-winning entertainment journalist with more than two decades of professional experience, Brent Simon has worked for a variety of outlets spanning both the domestic and international realms, including Mtime, one of China’s leading movie portals, as Senior Staff Reporter and Film Critic; and Screen International, as a contributing film critic.

A three-term president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Simon was honored by the publicists’ branch of the International Cinematographers Guild with its International Media Award in 2017. In addition to serving for 10-plus years as a review contributor to Magill’s Cinema Annual, he has thousands of bylines of film criticism, essays, feature pieces and talent interviews for a diverse list of more than 60 print and online publications, including Vulture, Newsweek Japan, Los Angeles Daily News, Yahoo Movies, Paste Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, and IGN.

Simon has worked with AFI Fest, served as a panel moderator and industry analyst across various platforms, and also sat on many festival juries. Additional masthead tenures consist of nearly six years as editor-in-chief and lead film critic of the print weekly Entertainment Today, and a three-year stint as film editor of H Magazine.

Close

Miriam Spritzer

Brazil

Miriam Spritzer is an international correspondent for a multitude of Brazilian outlets. Based in New York, Miriam is known for her red carpet coverages and interviews with renowned personalities in entertainment and the creative fields. Her work has been published in renowned magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, L’Officiel and Marie Claire and has contributed to major broadcast and radio outlets including Rede Globo, Jovem Pan, Band and Record as well as the digital platforms Steal The Look and Metrópoles. In 2025, she was recognized on Worth Magazine’s Groundbreaking Women list.

Miriam has a degree in Business Administration with emphasis in Marketing by ESPM in Brazil where she received one of the highest academic awards for her undergraduate thesis on Branding and Experiential Marketing. Prior to her work in journalism, Miriam worked in corporate consulting, marketing and training in various market segments as well as non-profit organizations. Her career in journalism started in 2011 an on-air reporter for TVCOM, a local news channel for Grupo RBS and one of the largest media companies in Brazil. Additionally, she often contributed to Grupo RBS radio shows and newspapers. Throughout her life, Miriam has studied dance, music, vocal technique, acting and filmmaking. Due to her background in the performing arts, she specialized in culture and entertainment reporting and often covers stories on Broadway shows, film and television premieres, film festivals and art.

In addition to currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Golden Globe Foundation, she has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Foreign Correspondents in the United States for 4 years.

Close

Hans J. Spürkel

Germany

Born in Bochum, Germany, Hans Spurkel started his journalistic career at a small regional newspaper before switching to the largest daily in the area. In 1969, he was hired by one of Germany’s leading television magazines, TV Horen und Sehen, and relocated to Hamburg. After seven years, the magazine appointed him their Hollywood correspondent and sent him to Los Angeles where he has lived and reported on the entertainment industry ever since. In 1978, Spurkel joined the HFPA and has remained an active member. He has served the association in various positions (Board member, Treasurer, Vice President) and on several committees. Today he works as a free-lancer for two European magazines, Glueckspost (Switzerland), and Topic (Austria).

Close

Mario Pacheco Székely

Mexico

Mario Pacheco Székely is a Mexican-American film and TV journalist, writer and film professor. He was born in the USA to Mexican parents and lived most of his life in Mexico. His first cover publication was at El Norte, a major newspaper in his hometown of Monterrey, México when he was 22. After moving to Mexico City, Székely spent 20 years writing for the most influential newspapers in the country such as El Universal, Reforma, Excelsior and Record. For more than two decades, Székely covered press junkets in L.A. and NY before moving to California in 2015. He also became Unit Publicist for landmark Mexican films such as Y Tu Mama También by Alfonso Cuarón, and movies starring international stars such as Eugenio Derbez, Demián Bichir and Salma Hayek.

His one-on-one interviews appeared in the Mexican and LATAM editions of Esquire Magazine, GQ, Empire, Marie Claire, Elle, TV Guide, Vanity Fair. He can be heard weekly on W Radio (National Mexican FM broadcast) and the movie show De Película at Los 40. For a decade Székely taught film history in Mexican colleges. Now he works with the Mexican consulate in L.A. to promote storytelling to the younger immigrant generations.

Close

Adam Tanswell

United Kingdom

Adam Tanswell is an award-winning journalist, producer, and media professional from London, England. Most recently, he served as Hollywood Correspondent for the UK movie magazine Total Film, but his prize-winning articles have been published in a variety of British publications, such as Radio Times, SFX, Metro, SciFiNow, OK!, Hello!, First News, and Digital Spy. On television, his filmed interviews have appeared on UK channels including MTV, Comedy Central, and ITV. He is credited as an Executive Producer of the 80th Golden Globe Awards. 
 
In Los Angeles, Adam is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the LA Press Club, and BAFTA LA. He is accredited with the MPA and has been a Golden Globe voter since 2015, serving as the Executive Secretary of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for many years. He’s also an active member of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) in the UK and worked on the Preselection Committee for the Monte Carlo Television Festival’s Golden Nymph Awards.
 
Adam started his publishing career at The Daily Telegraph in London, after obtaining a top-honors university degree in Economics. Alongside his 25-year career in journalism, he also worked at the BBC in London as a press officer and media consultant.
 
In his spare time, Adam volunteers with CORE and other charitable organizations. As a volunteer, he has assisted at various LA Film Festivals, Operation Gratitude, and the LA Regional Food Bank.

Close

Barbaros Tapan

United States

Barbaros Tapan was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. He has built a career in sports and entertainment journalism reporting for a variety of media outlets from the Turkish daily sports news publication Fanatik, CNNTurk, to Turkish TV network TRT and Kanal D.

Tapan moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue opportunities in entertainment journalism. He became the US representative of Turkey’s biggest media company, the Demiroren Media Group, in 2000. He writes for Demiroren Media’s daily newspaper Hurriyet, and currently serves as the US editor of the Turkish Airlines magazine Skylife.

The Entertainment Journalists Association of Turkey has awarded Tapan for his outstanding coverage of Hollywood movies in 2018 for three consecutive years.

He has been a member of HFPA since 2016.

As a producer, Tapan has been producing TV shows for BeIN Media-Turkey.

He is also the founder and president of the Hollywood Turkish Film Festival.

Close

Meher Tatna

India

Meher Tatna was born in Mumbai, India and came to the US on a scholarship to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts where she graduated cum laude with a degree in Economics. For the past 20 years she has freelanced for publications in Asia and her film criticism, essays and interviews have appeared in Vogue, Grazia, Femina and Elle in India, IMN in Singapore and Malaysia, and The New Paper in Singapore. Tatna has been a member of the HFPA since 2002, serving in every position in the Association’s administration including president from 2017 to 2019. During her presidency, the HFPA significantly increased philanthropic giving by expanding its film restoration funding and inaugurating its support of journalistic organizations with million-dollar grants announced at the Golden Globes. In 2018 she was invited to chair the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Awards in New York with host Bill Whitaker of CBS News.