
Elizabeth Blair
Elizabeth Blair is a Peabody Award-winning senior producer/reporter on the Arts Desk of NPR News.
Blair produces, edits, and reports arts and cultural segments for NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In this position, she has reported on a range of topics from arts funding to the MeToo movement. She has profiled renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Mikhail Baryshnikov, explored how old women are represented in fairy tales, and reported the origins of the children's classic Curious George. Among her all-time favorite interviews are actors Octavia Spencer and Andy Serkis, comedians Bill Burr and Hari Kondabolu, the rapper K'Naan, and Cookie Monster (in character).
Blair has overseen several, large-scale series including The NPR 100, which explored landmark musical works of the 20th Century, and In Character, which probed the origins of iconic American fictional characters. Along with her colleagues on the Arts Desk and at NPR Music, Blair curated American Anthem, a major series exploring the origins of songs that uplift, rouse, and unite people around a common theme.
Blair's work has received several honors, including two Peabody Awards and a Gracie. She previously lived in Paris, France, where she co-produced Le Jazz Club From Paris with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the monthly magazine Postcard From Paris.
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Her credits include Frozen, Wreck-It Ralphand Zootopia. Now, Jennifer Lee is the first female chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios — oh, and she co-directed the Frozensequel.
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Sarah Silverman, Tiffany Haddish and Jon Stewart were among the comedians who honored Chappelle as he received the annual American humor award in a music-filled ceremony at the Kennedy Center.
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Vietnam and other countries bordering the South China Sea are angry about a map shown in the new movie Abominable.The movie is a co-production of DreamWorks and a Chinese animation studio.
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We have an update on the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. Also, anti-government protests in Iraq continue and actor James Franco is accused of sexually exploiting female former students.
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The head of The Walt Disney Co. has a new book, The Ride of a Lifetime. It's a memoir of what he has learned in 15 years there — encompassing the purchases of Pixar, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox.
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Valerie Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, died Friday in Los Angeles. She was 80.
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Harper's Mary Tyler Moore Show character was the perfect foil for the sitcom's buttoned-up protagonist. "Rhoda had this wonderful quality of saying the unsayable," Harper told NPR in 2010.
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The Just For Laughs international comedy festival is not just for headliners. The largest comedy festival in the world is also known for being the place for new comedians to break out.
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Singer Billie Holiday died 60 years ago next week. For nearly a year, she had no tombstone until fans rallied to make sure Lady Day's final resting place was properly marked.
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Two women have come forward to corroborate E. Jean Carroll's claim that President Trump sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s.