Brooke Obie

EDITING, CONSULTING (SCRIPT, MEDIA CAMPAIGNS, SENSITIVITY READING)

Brooke Obie has been in editorial leadership positions for more than a decade and is an award-winning author, journalist, screenwriter, and TV/film critic. She has consulted on screenplays for major Hollywood studios. Building on her storied career in editorial leadership, Brooke launched her subscriber-based film/TV criticism platform Black Girl Watching in December 2024. Within the first year, after a series of viral film and TV criticism, Black Girl Watching was listed in the top 50 Culture platforms on Substack.

The Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic also received grants to support her work on the platform from Rotten Tomatoes, Critical Minded, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. In 2019, Brooke was named to The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans list for her film criticism and leadership revamping the Black film and TV site Shadow & Act.

As editor-in-chief of Will Packer Media’s lifestyle site xoNecole, Deputy Director for Refinery 29 Unbothered, co-editor for Roxane Gay’s “The Audacity” newsletter, managing editor for Shadow And Act, Senior Editor for Guideposts Magazine and Editor-at-Large for EBONY, her editorial leadership has set the tone for brands both internally and externally, building inclusive, fair-paying environments and platforms known for witty, must-read cultural commentary. Her developmental editing has helped scores of writers shape their strongest critiques, essays, scripts and books.

With an MFA in literary fiction from The New School, Brooke has written the internationally acclaimed novel Book of Addis: Cradled Embers and has edited literary fiction and non-fiction, providing invaluable feedback on books, screenplays, essays, articles, company documents, and PR campaigns for film studios, entertainment publicists, and writers.

If you’re looking for an editor to help shape your editorial direction or polish your literary or journalistic work, or if you need a consultant on media campaigns and screenplays, to provide deep, constructive feedback and direction, please contact Brooke here. Rates vary by scope of work.

awards

The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans of 2019

For my work revitalizing the film and TV site Shadow & Act as managing editor, I was named to The Root 100 in the media category.

Courses

Writing Black Speculative Fiction as Resistance (La Maison Baldwin)

Magazine Cover Stories Edited by Brooke Obie

Issa Rae Comes Full Circle (xoNecole digital cover launch 2022)

Chlöe: The Conqueror, Refinery29 Unbothered Covered November 2021 

Misty Copeland: Made to Dance (Guideposts magazine February 2016 cover story, print issue)

Courtney B. Vance: A Helping Spirit (Guideposts magazine August 2016 cover story, print issue)

Editorial packages

xoNecole

She Comes First editorial package focusing on women prioritizing self-pleasure, self-identity, and community care as self-care, with inaugural cover star Issa Rae and featuring podcast interviews with Tabitha Brown, Ashanti, Amber Riley, Elaine Welteroth and Brandee Evans (September 2022)

Refinery29 Unbothered

June 2021 editorial package Celebrating Juneteenth: Now and Forever, featuring liberation stories on global Black solidarity, sexual liberation, abolition in the present day, and cooking soul food as a lesson in ancestral memory.