ELLIS HENICAN is a Newsday columnist, television news political analyst, three-time New York Times bestselling author, and social media storyteller. He is also the voice of Stormy on the hit Cartoon Network series, “Sealab 2021”.
Across a wide variety of media platforms, Ellis is known for telling compelling stories about the people and issues of today. His most recent book is The Party’s Over:How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat which he wrote with Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor of Florida, who switched sides and became a Democrat and is now running for Governor again. Ellis’ other books include Doc: A Memoir with famed baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden, Damn Few with Navy SEAL commander Rorke Denver, In the Blink of an Eye with NASCAR legend Michael Waltrip, and Home Team with New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton.
An award-winning newspaper columnist and social storyteller, Ellis finds himself in the middle of politics, business, crime, race, and more than a little tabloid silliness. Before taking on his current assignments, Henican wrote Newsday’s subway column, leading the paper to a Pulitzer Prize for covering the Union Square train wreck.
In recent years, Ellis has built a strong presence on TV and radio, appearing on most of the major broadcast and cable networks. He spent a dozen years under contract to the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, where he appeared frequently on “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Fox & Friends,” “Fox News Watch,” “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” “Varney & Co.”, and other top programs. At Fox, Ellis was known for his lively take on the news and for dissecting complex issues in an engaging way. These days you are just as likely to see him on MSNBC shows such as “First Take” and CNN’s “Out Front with Erin Burnett” and “@ This Hour.”
Ellis speaks frequently to business, social and academic groups, sharing his inside stories from politics, media and pop culture. In recent years, he has become known as a pioneering storyteller in the world of social media. His work has been recognized with the Meyer Berger Award for Distinguished Writing about New York City, the National Clarion Award for Column Writing, and shares of two Pulitzer Prizes for Sports News.
Born in Virginia and raised in New Orleans, Ellis earned a Bachelor’s Degree in political science from Hampshire College. He has a Master’s Degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he won the top student prize, the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. He began his career as a reporter at the Kentucky Post and the Albany (N.Y.) Knickerbocker News.
He lives with his wife, criminal-defense attorney Stephanie Carvlin, in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood.