About Lorraine Ali
Lorraine Ali was born and raised in Los Angeles with two sisters, an Iraqi father and an American mother.
She began writing for the LA Weekly in the early 1990s. She soon became a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a senior critic for Rolling Stone and a car columnist for the late, great UHF magazine.
Her pursuit of the perfect story brought her to Havana, where she drank mojitos with the Buena Vista Social Club, the Occupied Territories, where she talked Tupac with Palestinian rappers, and Southern Italy, where she attended a mafia feast with Malavita musicians.
For Newsweek, Ali’s covered everything from the first gay custody battle between two moms to the secret lives of surrogates to domestic interrogations and detainments post 9/11.
She’s also written first person about the Iraqi Diaspora by documenting the plight of her own family following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Baghdad.
As for interviews, Ali has sat down with everyone from Jenna Bush to Jay-Z. Her profiles include "Kite Runner" author Khaled Hosseini, Michael Moore, Beyonce, Hilary Swank, Gael Garcia Bernal, Prince, Sacha Baron Cohen, Johnny Cash and The Rolling Stones.
Ali is the recipient of a 2009 Journalism Award from the New York Press Club for her article "Mrs. Kramer vs Mrs. Kramer," part of Newsweek's continuing coverage of gay marriage.
In addition, she won “Best Online Feature” from the New York Association of Black Journalists in 2007, an “Excellence in Journalism” award in 2002 from the National Arab Journalists Association, “Best Feature Writing” honors from the 2002 Gospel Music Association and was included in Da Capo “Best Music Writing, 2001 for her story “West Bank Hard Core.”
She was voted 1997’s Music Journalist of the Year and won Best National Feature Story honors at the 1996 Music Journalism Awards.
Ali has also written for The New York Times, GQ, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Ladies Home Journal, SPIN, Option and The Village Voice. Lorraine Ali has been interviewed on Oprah, Charlie Rose and Good Morning America.
She lives in Los Angeles with her tech-master husband, amazingly adorable son and arthritic pitbull, Lou.