Valerie Ettenhofer
School
Saint Mary's College Of California
Expertise
"The Last Of Us", "Stranger Things", Streaming TV Shows
- A major "Avatar: The Last Airbender" fan since 2005, Valerie has previously ranked every episode of the series and even has a tattoo of the four element symbols.
- Valerie wrote an essay about the Nicolas Cage drama "Pig" – her favorite movie of 2021 – that appears in the 2023 Simon & Schuster anthology "Sad Happens."
- Valerie has previously served on the Critics Choice Awards TV comedy nominating committee, where she was thrilled to help highlight breakout performances from great shows like "Reservation Dogs" and "Abbott Elementary."
Experience
Valerie has been working professionally as an entertainment journalist since 2012, when she began freelance writing for her local college newspaper and quickly rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief. After college, Valerie interned at the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco, writing copy for their website and falling even more in love with film in the process. Since then, her work has appeared in print in the East Bay Express, as well as on websites like The Playlist, IGN, Dread Central, IndieReader, Movie Mezzanine, and more. Valerie is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association's TV and Documentary branches and the LGBTQ+ critics' circle, GALECA. For several years, she served as the head TV critic at Film School Rejects. She also publishes a weekly pop culture newsletter titled "Hey, What Are You Watching?"
Education
Valerie graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree from Saint Mary's College of California, where she studied English. Her film-heavy education allowed her to study special topics in pop culture, including independent film and the works of Alfred Hitchcock.
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Stories By Valerie Ettenhofer
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According to Sally Field (and others), Steel Magnolias director Herb Ross treated Julia Roberts poorly on the set of the film.
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The Last of Us season 1 didn't leave a lot of room for improvisation, but Pedro Pascal made a vital contribution to one of Joel's most moving scenes.
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Here they are: all of the Trolls movies in order, in case you want to have yourself a Trolls marathon.
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Zendaya thought to improvise a moment involving bread from Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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Surviving members of The Love Boat's cast are still working in Hollywood today, while others have retired from acting and are pursuing other endeavors.
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The late Lance Reddick had the misfortune of having his role in not one but two Godzilla films heavily edited down, including Godzilla vs. Kong.
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Amazon's Fallout TV show is packed with Justified actors, and Walton Goggins has revealed he personally invited Mykelti Williamson to guest star.
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Burt Reynolds (briefly) thought speaking in an Irish accent would improve Boogie Nights, much to Mark Wahlberg and director Paul Thomas Anderson's confusion.
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We've seen footage of Barry Jenkins' new Lion King prequel Mufasa: The Lion King at CinemaCon 2024.
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Steven Spielberg had a lot of problems as director of Jaws, but one person kept him from being fired.
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Maxine Minx is ready to leave her bloody past behind her and become a movie star, but the first trailer for MaXXXine teases the horror that lurks in L.A.
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These are the only actors still alive from A Time For Killing, including Harrison Ford.
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Actor-turned-filmmaker Dev Patel wants to let the dust settle on Monkey Man before considering a sequel to his acclaimed action movie.
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Star Trek Spock actor Ethan Peck says that sometimes when fans come to see him he feels like he's 'kind of a priest.'
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' massive augmented reality walls, which its cast and crew dub 'The Holodeck,' are similar to those used by ILM's The Volume.
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The Fantastic Four movie might feature the Future Foundation - but what is that?
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Let's take a deep dive into one of the more forgotten Twilight Zone episodes, Nightmare as a Child.
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According to Norman Lear, the ending of 'Edith's 50th Birthday' elicited the strongest audience reaction of any moment in All in the Family's nine-season run.
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In the court martial episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, William Shatner used his power as the series lead to request something from the director.
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These are the only actors still alive from the classic Western TV series Bonanza.
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Here are the actors still alive from the TV classic The Donna Reed Show.
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Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will introduce Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), a member of a little-explored alien species called the Kelleruns.
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Do you want to watch a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds murder-mystery episode directed by Jonathan Frakes? Of course you do.
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An additional episode of the horrifying docuseries Quiet on Set will explore lingering questions and dig deeper into conversations ignited by previous episodes.
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Melissa Moore's true crime podcast Happy Face is being adapted into a series at Paramount+. Here's what we know about the show so far.
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3 Body Problem hails from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and contains some of that previous show's penchant for violence.
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David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are back with Netflix's 3 Body Problem and they've brought several of their Game of Thrones actors with them.