Carvell Wallace

Carvell Wallace (born October 20, 1974, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania) is a New York Times bestselling author, writer, and podcaster. He is a regular contributor to Pitchfork, MTV News, the Huffington Post, and Slate, and has written for The New York Times, New York Magazine, GQ, The Toast, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Esquire, Quartz, ESPN, and other publications. He is the creator and host of Finding Fred, an iHeart Media documentary podcast about the life of Fred Rogers; host of Closer Than They Appear, an Al Jazeera podcast about race and identity in America, and co-host of the Slate parenting podcast Mom & Dad Are Fighting. In 2019, he helped create the Sundance Institute exhibition Still Here, an immersive multimedia installation about mass incarceration, erasure, and gentrification in Harlem, New York.

Early life Wallace was raised by a working-class single mother He had "a very chaotic childhood" but "was really obsessed with media" from a young age, namely TV shows and movies. One of his early idols was Eddie Murphy. One of his projects involved designing an education intake and assessment model for youth released from Rikers Island and Spofford Detention Facility. Another project, undertaken in 2000, entailed the redesign and expansion of an organic farming employment program, under the auspices of the San Francisco League Of Urban Gardeners, for middle school-aged youth in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, during which time he taught on the subjects of sustainable farming, food security, and environmental justice. He was also tasked with creating a reentry to society program for youth from San Francisco County who were exiting long-term incarceration. Furthermore, he "wrote the curriculum for and ran the pilot for a career certificate training program for youth leaving foster care in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano counties." In 2003, he created and taught a course for middle school-aged black youth which combined history with behavior modification and social skills development. He subsequently spent seven years as at Revolution Prep in Santa Monica, California.

During this time, Wallace co-founded Flourish Agenda whose mission included outreach to "black youth in schools and community organizations to help overcome racial trauma and provide tools that are necessary for success." Also during this period, Wallace co-created the Vibosity app, which "allow[ed] kids to assess their own personal, social, and emotional growth," was a speaker at Alterconf San Francisco as well as the San Francisco Tech Inclusion Conference, The same year, he wrote a profile of NBA player Steph Curry, Wallace's first profile, which was published in The New Yorker. Starting in March 2016, he spent a year and six months as an MTV News Music Desk columnist, John Coltrane, white rappers, and Aaliyah, to Bernie Worrell, De La Soul, G-Eazy, and Meghan Trainor.

In 2017, Wallace wrote GQ cover story on Mahershala Ali. Among many writings of his that year, he teamed with Al Jazeera to start the Closer Than They Appear podcast, an exploration of race and identity in America. The podcast went on to win a Kaleidoscope Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.

In 2018, Wallace wrote Viola Davis's Woman of the Year piece for Glamour. He also wrote Obama's Parting Gift, a story about the end of Barack Obama's presidency for The New Yorker, which earned a spot in 2018's Best American Essays. The same year, his Al Jazeera podcast, Closer Than They Appear, received a favorable review from the Los Angeles Review of Books.

On March 12, 2019, Esquire published Wallace's "Samuel L. Jackson Operates Like He Owns the Place. (He Does.)" as their cover story. Also in 2019, Wallace helped the Golden State Warriors' Andre Iguodala write the book The Sixth Man: A Memoir, which ranked as a New York Times bestseller.

Awards and honors 2026 Whiting Award in Non-fiction 2025 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for Another Word for Love 2023 American Mosaic Journalism Prize Finding Fred, Wallace's documentary podcast about the life of Fred Rogers, named #1 Podcast of 2019 by The Atlantic. In June 2019, the Los Angeles Times placed The Sixth Man: A Memoir, the book Wallace helped the Golden State Warriors' Andre Iguodala write, on their list "7 buzzworthy June books to look out for." Kaleidoscope Award, granted by the Radio Television Digital News Association (2018) "Episode 330: Sunday Sunday, Oh Sh*t Tomorrow's Monday! Plus, Carvell Wallace on Parenting and Fred Rogers" Guest Nov. 22, 2019 It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, NPR "Weekly Wrap: Dems Debate, Mister Rogers and WeWork" Guest Nov. 15, 2019-Dec. 24, 2019 Finding Fred Series Host Oct. 23, 2019 Longform "Carvell Wallace" Guest January 4, 2019 On Point, 90.9 WBUR "Do Moms And Dads Know What They're Doing? A Closer Look At Parenting Advice" Guest 2017 Closer Than They Appear Series Host Dec. 2013-ongoing Mom and Dad Are Fighting Series Host