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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Netflix's 3 Body Problem meticulously lays the groundwork for us to understand the San-Ti, so much so that you'd be forgiven for thinking they have a point.
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When it came time to make Alien: Romulus, director Fede Alvarez turned to Alien franchise experts Ridley Scott and James Cameron.
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Would you like to eat popcorn out of a 20-sided die, a sandworm's mouth, a beetle, or a skull? This movie tie-in merchandise will make your dreams come true!
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All in the Family went through three different pilots before it got its casting just right.
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Star Trek has always been all about the crew and Discovery took that to heart by giving specific crew members the spotlight each day on set.
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Dev Patel was hesitant to direct Monkey Man until his Chappie director Neill Blomkamp convinced him he was the best candidate for the job.
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Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's lesbian road trip comedy Drive-Away Dolls is hitting the home media market, starting with its release on PVOD.
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The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live finally adapts a major event from the Walking Dead comics involving Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in its premiere.
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According to Mia Farrow, the actor who played the Devil was a perfect gentleman. Hopefully Rosemary's Baby also inherited his father's manners.
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Saw writer and original film star Leigh Whannell dreamed up the beloved franchise's horror icon, Jigsaw, after having a real-life health scare of his own.
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Playing Barry in High Fidelity was a star-making career move for Jack Black, but he initially turned the role down.
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Squid Game champion Gi-hun is determined to find out who is running the games in season 2, but can he survive another round?
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With the end in sight, let's break down all the True Detective: Night Country theories and try to figure out what the heck is going on.
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The horrifying birthing sequence at the end of Men was somewhat ridiculous to film, especially when a sheep tried to join in.
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Bryan Cranston, who previously served as a director on The Office, has finally said what everyone's probably been thinking: there should be an Office movie.
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The Tower of Terror is filled with details homaging The Twilight Zone thanks to Disney's Imagineers, who came to know every episode of the show inside and out.
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Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is one of the best films ever made, and all of the actors still alive are continuing their legacies of greatness.
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Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin looks to finally give the first Black member of the Peanuts gang the special he's deserved for over 50 years.
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Dune: Part Two's stillsuits weren't nearly as high-tech as their fictional counterparts, as Zendaya was reminded while working on the film.
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Carl Weathers kept his Uncle Sam-style hat from Rocky, only to lose it in a houseplant-related incident.
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Star Trek fans with a keen sense of geography may have realized Khan was trouble from the start, given where his spaceship, the S.S. Botany Bay, gets its name.
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The mysterious Hihi company from Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane's new Mr. and Mrs. Smith series is shrouded in mystery. Let's take a closer look.
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After a huge boost in popularity thanks to Netflix streams, NBC's legal drama Suits is getting a spin-off pilot set in Los Angeles.
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Tim Burton is teaming up with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn for a remake of the 1958 sci-fi B-movie Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman.
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William Asher's takeover as director on I Love Lucy season 2 resulted in a behind-the-scenes clash that led to Lucille Ball breaking down in tears.
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The Twilight Zone episode 'The Trade-Ins' is the series at its most emotional ... and that was reflected in a very real offscreen tragedy.
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Nickelodeon might be bringing back The Fairly OddParents. Here's what we know about the possible sequel series.