Please Welcome Jay Fernandez, Indiewire's Awesome New Senior Writer and News Editor

Indiewire has spent the last three months looking for someone with a rare combination of qualities -- someone who knows indie film, who's a great writer, an aggressive reporter and an overall good egg. I'm happy to say that we've found that person in Jay Fernandez.

He comes from The Hollywood Reporter, where he's been a senior film reporter since 2008 and directed their indie coverage in addition to covering festivals, the major studios and awards. In addition to writing freelance pieces for outlets including Entertainment Weekly, Premiere and Variety, he also spent two years at the Los Angeles Times with his column "Scriptland," which delved deeply into the world of screenwriting, including the trials and tribulations of the writers' strike. 

Among the many things we're looking forward to doing with him is beefing up our coverage of the VOD beat as well as our popular Filmmaker Toolkit articles, in addition to in-depth profiles of the people and companies that make up our ever-changing industry.

Jay is currently based in Los Angeles, but he'll be moving to New York this summer to join our East Coast team that includes Eric Kohn, Nigel Smith and Bryce Renninger, with Peter Knegt in Montreal. His start date is April 23; expect to see him make his debut during the Tribeca Film Festival.