Vivian Manning-Schaffel

Vivian Manning-Schaffel is a seasoned storyteller who conjures compelling narratives about people, places, and things for a living. Focused on the intersection of pop culture and human behavior and what keeps people healthy physically and emotionally, she finds tremendous personal and professional gratification when she hears her work has resonated with a reader. 

She is a regular contributor at Shondaland.com and has written feature articles, celebrity/artist profiles, author Q&As, service pieces, essays, and op-eds for the TODAY Show website, NBC News BETTER, The Cut, the New York Daily News, The Week, Forge/Medium, DAME, Prevention, SELF, The New York Times, Time Out New York, The New York Post, CBS Watch!, Jezebel, Gothamist, and a host of other publications. She's also been a contributing writer/editor at NBC News, Working Mother, and Time Out New York Kids.

 A versatile wordsmith and senior-level brand/content strategist, Viv brings over 20 years of experience in leading and enabling branding initiatives, having written everything from TV ads to white papers, taglines, and assorted long and short-form copy for the fashion, beauty, packaged goods, financial, banking, food, and home brands you've either heard of or use every single day.

Deeper into her checkered past lives, she's been a pop culture podcast host, a joke writer as one of US Weekly's Fashion Police, a talking head on TV, a voice you may have heard on the radio, and the person you kissed up to trying to get into the club.

A devout Brooklynite for more than a quarter-century, Viv recently decamped to the hinterlands of her beloved city as an experiment to see if she could actually, finally, hear herself think. When she isn't trying to rub two words together to make a spark, you'll find her hanging out with her husband, kids, and/or friends at a pool, beach, concert, stand-up set, museum, art gallery, author event, thrift shop, or on a quest to find a halfway decent gluten-free pizza.