I’m Lauren DiBenedetto, a Toronto-based writer working across journalism, academia, and creative nonfiction. You may have seen some of my bylines in Toronto Life, Streets of Toronto, Post City Magazines, Broken Pencil Magazine & more. My work explores culture as something lived and felt: examining politics, culture, and the human narrative through film, theatre, literature, food, travel and performance with a particular focus on queer and feminist perspectives.

Alongside my editorial work, I’m an educator. I work as a high school teacher in the York Region across English and arts classrooms advocating for the return of creativity in youth centered spaces. At my heart, I’m an observer and an academic finding ways to communicate my observations with the world. With an M.A. in Literatures of Modernity, B.A. (Hons) in English & Theatre, B.Ed. in Intermediate/Senior English and Drama I am both a perpetual teacher and student.

My experience spans features, interviews, academic and personal essays, event-based reporting, short stories, playwriting, and screenwriting.

This portfolio brings together selected academic writings, published journalism, published creatives works, as well as The Group Chat — a space for more informal, conversational essays, that live somewhere between cultural commentary, personal reflection, and a running text thread.

At the center of it all is writing: thoughtful, awake, and engaged pieces. A place for me to advocate, and storytell.