Sharon Waxman

Sharon I. Waxman (born c. 1963) is an American author, journalist, and blogger who has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The New York Times, and founded the Hollywood and media business news site TheWrap in early 2009.

Early life and education Waxman grew up in a Modern Orthodox Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Barnard College in 1985 with a bachelor of arts in English literature. She then graduated from St. Antony's College, Oxford University, in 1987 with a master of philosophy in modern Middle Eastern studies.

Career Journalism Waxman was a foreign correspondent in Europe and the Middle East from 1989 to 1995. In 1999, she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by The Washington Post for her work covering the Second Palestinian Intifada. Most recently, Waxman's WaxWord received an NEJA for Best Entertainment Blog in 2024.

In 2021, Sharon Waxman was named Online Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Clubs SoCal Journalism Awards, with WaxWord named as the best blog that same year. Additionally, “TheWrap-Up” podcast, creator of TheGrill podcast has won several top awards as has the website under her editorial leadership.

Authorship In 2005, she published the LA Times best-seller "Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System." The book profiles six directors, including Quentin Tarantino and David O. Russell. In 2008, Waxman published her second book, "Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World," which explores the global trade in antiquities and the battle by source countries to retrieve antiquities held in Western museums.

TheWrap Waxman founded the Hollywood and media business news site TheWrap in early 2009. According to CBS Market Watch, Waxman raised $500,000 for TheWrap news, as a news portal site covering entertainment and media, which launched on January 26, 2009. A second round of financing was closed in 2010. By 2013, TheWrap had grown into a site with 30 employees. It also convenes an annual conference attended by leaders in entertainment, media, and technology called TheGrill.

TheWrap has won multiple awards for investigative reporting, columns, criticism and feature writing. In 2021 Waxman was honored as the Best Online Journalist at the Los Angeles Press Club SoCal Journalism Awards, as well for her blog, WaxWord. In 2019, the site won two National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards for the multimedia package “#AfterMeToo: 12 Accusers Share What Happened Next, From Firing to More Trauma.” In 2021, the Los Angeles Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards gave the site top prizes for feature photography as well as for its weekly podcast, “TheWrap-Up.” WrapWomen convenes the largest annual event for women and underrepresented groups in entertainment, The Power Women Summit, which in 2021 drew 1 million streams over 3 days in a virtual format.

Toxic workplace allegations

In October 2021, The Daily Beast published a story about Waxman titled "Hollywood Media Mogul Is 'Degrading' Boss From Hell, Her Staffers Say." Twenty former employees of The Wrap spoke with The Daily Beast, detailing how Waxman's "toxic" actions in the workplace caused high turnover in her newsroom.