BIO

Born and raised in Hollywood, and the Jewish American granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Solvej Schou is an award-winning Pasadena, California-based writer, editor, content strategist and marketing and communications specialist with more than two decades of experience. She is also an indie musician.

Schou works full-time as ArtCenter College of Design’s staff senior writer in Marketing and Communications, writing stories about inspiring, talented and multilayered alumni, students, faculty, staff and donors, and creating other online and print copy. Schou has won four CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) awards for her ArtCenter stories: an international 2020-2021 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards gold award in feature writing, two 2021-2022 CASE District VII writing awards, and a 2022-2023 CASE District VII writing award.

Her writing experience includes former staff and senior staff writer-reporter positions at The Associated Press and Entertainment Weekly to freelance articles for AP, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other outlets. She has also contributed poetry and personal essays to publications including Angels Flight • literary west. She served on the Content Committee of the 2023 CASE Editors Forum conference in Chicago, and has been a panelist at conferences including Pop Con. Her past experience includes 12 years of Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys coverage, as well as coverage of film festivals Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Schou has interviewed influential artists, designers, musicians, actors, actresses and directors, including Aldis Hodge, Aretha Franklin, Barbara Kruger, Beyoncé, Bong Joon-ho, Brian Wilson, Chrissie Hynde, Christian Alzmann, Demi Moore, Flea, Forest Whitaker, Francis Ford Coppola, Gael Garcia Bernal, Halle Berry, Herbie Hancock, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jennifer Hudson, John Waters, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kevin Hart, Kim Jee-woon, Kristen Bell, Natalie Candrian, Nicole Kidman, Olly Alexander, Pablo Larraín, Park Chan-wook, Patti Smith, Rebeca Méndez, Ringo Starr, Selena Gomez, Stan Douglas, Steve Aoki, Tracee Ellis Ross, Victor Estrada, Wendy MacNaughton and Yves Behar. She and has contributed to multiple books, including essays on Patti Smith, Sharon Jones and PJ Harvey for the anthology Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl (Black Dog & Leventhal).

As an indie rock musician, Schou is a fierce singer, songwriter and guitarist. Her loud and passionate album Quiet For Too Long, her second solo album and first full-band solo album, is available through Bandcamp, and on limited edition red vinyl. The album’s “distillation of frustration, sadness and occasional joy, alongside real world issues, into sheer poetry is a real gift, and a much needed one right now," LA Weekly wrote about the album as its album of the week. Her self-titled debut solo album was followed by the single “Friendship.”

Schou has a bachelor’s degree in from Barnard College, Columbia University and a master’s degree in journalism from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.