Randy Cohen

Randy Cohen is an American writer and humorist known as the author of The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. The column was syndicated throughout the U.S. and Canada. Cohen is also known as the author of several books, a playwright, and the host of the public radio show Person Place Thing.

Career Cohen graduated from the University at Albany, SUNY in 1971, with a Bachelor of Arts in music. He received an MFA in music composition from the California Institute of the Arts. During this time there he and Rich Gold worked for Serge Tcherpnin to help create the Serge synthesizer. In 2011, Cohen received the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University at Albany.

From 1973 to 1977 he played Serge synthesizer and drums alongside Boris Policeband and George Scott III in the early no wave band Jack Ruby.

He spent several years "writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for leading newspapers and magazines," including The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic; his first paid, published piece was in 1976 for The Village Voice. over seven years, starting in 1984.

Cohen wrote for TV Nation, sharing in a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series in 1995. In 1996, he became the original head writer for The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

Cohen wrote for Slate starting in 1996. At Slate, he became known for "News Quiz", a satiric reader-participation feature which began in February 1998 and ended in November 2000. He also co-wrote a first-season episode of Ed, first broadcast on February 14, 2001.

Cohen wrote The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. From 2001 to 2005, he also answered listeners' questions on ethics for the National Public Radio radio news program, All Things Considered. The Times ended Cohen's stint as The Ethicist, making his final column Sunday, February 27, 2011. The column continued with the same format but a new byline until early 2015, when it abandoned the question and answer format for a discussion format among a number of persons.

Cohen donated $585 to MoveOn.org's voter registration effort in 2004, apparently in violation of Times policy, which had banned political donations in 2003. The Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review decided on June 20, 2007, to drop Cohen's column, which had been scheduled to begin running in the paper on the following Saturday, because of his donation. Cohen responded that he saw no ethical violation, because he viewed MoveOn as no more activist than other organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America. Nonetheless, he said he would not make such donations in the future.

Cohen wrote a play about the eighteenth century boxing champion Daniel Mendoza. The Punishing Blow debuted in 2009 at the Woodstock Fringe Festival