New York Times Best-selling Author, American Journalist, Illustrator, & Podcast Host

Shea Serrano | Biography

Co-host of podcast show 'The Connect' & 'With a Pencil and Villains'

• By Ojasbi
• Original : October 19, 2021

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Shea Serrano is the writer of the New York Times best-selling book ‘Hip-Hop (And Other Things),’ scheduled to be published on 26 October 2021.

Who Is Shea Serrano?

Shea Serrano is an American journalist, illustrator, podcast host, New York Times, best-selling author, and former teacher. 

He is the author of the books including ‘Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated’ (2017), ‘The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed’ (2015), ‘Movies’ (2019), and ‘A Wedding Thing (The One, #3)’ (2019) among several others. Besides, he has written for renowned publications such as the Houston Press, LA Weekly, The Ringer, and others, earning a reputation as a journalist.

Serrano has also co-hosted podcast shows like With a Pencil, Villains, and The Connect with Jason Concepcion. 

Early Age and Education

Shea Serrano was born in the city of San Antonio, Texas, on 1 June 1981. He is of Mexican-American descent. 

He is an alumnus of Sam Houston State University. Serrano moved to Houston after graduation, where he worked in construction sites and eventually became a middle-school science teacher.

Career

Serrano holds a plethora of designations. He is a philosopher, a journalist, an artist, a New York Times bestseller, philanthropist, and an erstwhile teacher. 

Career as a Teacher

Serrano began his career as an eighth-grade science teacher in a Houston Title 1 school. He contributed to the job for nine years.

Career as a Journalist

Serrano started writing in 2007 to augment his income for the prosperity of his then-expecting wife. He freelanced for the Houston Press and temporarily wrote for the Near Northwest Banner. He mainly wrote about hip-hop and rock music while there.

He also served stints at the LA Weekly, a sister magazine of the Houston Press, and worked as a freelancer for Grantland, the ESPN-owned blog page, until being recruited full time in July 2015. In addition, Serrano began writing for The Ringer, a podcast network, in July 2016.

Career as an Author & His Books

Serrano belongs to the list of The New York Times best-selling author. He has penned various books, both illustrative and non-illustrative. These include ‘Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated’ (2017), ‘The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed’ (2015), ‘Movies’ (2019), and ‘A Wedding Thing (The One, #3)’ (2019). 

His additional credits as an author include books like ‘Conference Room, Five Minutes’ (2018), ‘Where Do You Think We Are?: Ten Illustrated Essays About Scrubs’ (2020), ‘A Difficult Conversation: How to Talk to Trump Supporters’ (2020), ‘Post: A Short Story of No Consequence of All’ (2020), ‘Angel - A Short Story of Ruination’ (2020), and ‘Bun B’s Rapper Coloring and Activity Book’ (2013).

A few of his books that have been released in the audio format include ‘Movies,’ ‘A Wedding Thing,’ and ‘Basketball (and Other Things).’ He also wrote the TV series Football U, which debuted in 2015.

Podcast

Serrano co-hosted the podcast, The Connect with Jason Concepcion from 6 November 2018 to 20 May 2021. The hosts dissected two different films in pursuit of exploring the interconnectedness in the program.

Each episode of the podcast chronicled on a particular theme which was identical in both the films. The themes varied from characters to genres. After that, the hosts deciphered the interconnectedness between the two through decided segments and activities. 

He also co-hosted a couple more podcast shows titled With a Pencil and Villains with Jason Concepcion from 25 April to 30 May 2019 and 6 November 2018 to 15 January 2019. 

Other Projects and Donation

Serrano launched a weekly newsletter, ‘Basketball (And Other Things),’ on 20 March 2016. The editorial focused on the players and headlining circumstances at the National Basketball Association (NBA). His ideas for the newsletter were accompanied by the artwork of Arturo Torres, a co-author of Serrano’s book ‘The Rap Year Book.’ The publication had garnered over 30,000 subscribers in only a few weeks. 

Albeit the newsletter was distributed for free, Serrano and Arturo made two donations out of ‘Basketball (And Other Things).’ The duo donated the money to several charities, such as the Genesis Women’s Shelter, Kids’ Meals, Operation Turkey, and others, distributing a sum of $10,000 to the cause.

Besides this, Serrano’s other charity work includes spreading words for donation to San Antonio Food Bank. He tweeted for the cause on 11 April 2020. He was successful in raising a donation of $100,000 within 8 hours.

Social Media 

Serrano’s Twitter profile has a sizable following of over 426000 as of October 2021. He holds daily court on various topics, including basketball, Taco Bell, Young Thug, fatherhood, and the inequities of unpaid content creation in his Twitter feed. 

Besides, Serrano regularly puts out his email address so that anybody might contact him for guidance on making it as a writer. The community he built in this manner was also dubbed “utopia on Twitter” by The Verge, and he was dubbed “Our New Favorite Internet Hero” by GOOD Magazine.

Wife & Children

Serrano is married to his wife, Larami Serrano. The couple together has three sons, nicknamed Boy A, Boy B, and the Baby. In addition, the family owns a French bulldog, Younger Jeezy. 

Serrano and Larami have been married for over sixteen years. They exchanged vows in a hospital where Larami had been admitted the day before their wedding.