Erik Rhey

Erik Rhey is a writer, editor, and strategist with 20 years of experience. He has a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he also studied film and English. He began in the newsroom of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, writing local news, community events, and obituaries. After moving to New York in 2000, he worked as a tech journalist and feature writer, while also working on fiction projects. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in 2008, going on to write two novels and publishing multiple short stories.

Erik has taught writing and digital journalism at Hunter College, the Gotham Writer's Workshop, and NYU's School of Continuing Education. He moved to L.A. in 2016 and is the senior writer, strategist, and West Coast creative lead at Courageous, the brand studio of CNN. Here he researches, writes, and develops sponsored video documentaries and series. He is also the curator of the Courageous Ideas Library, an ongoing compendium of video concepts that grows by more than 200 ideas per year. He is currently writing multiple TV pilots for scripted series based on news events, history, and alt history.