Drew Grant is an American journalist, editor, writer, and YouTuber who currently serves as a Senior Editor at dot.LA, a technology news organization headquartered in Los Angeles. She is also widely known as the former wife of Ari Melber, the MSNBC chief legal correspondent and host of The Beat with Ari Melber. Her career spans more than 15 years, with bylines in major outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and The New York Post. This biography covers her early life, professional journey, marriage to Melber, and her public health battle with alopecia.
Early Life and Education
Drew Grant was born on 25 May 1972 in Park Slope, New York City, to Steven and Lynn Grant. She grew up in Delaware alongside her sister, Hannah Claire Grant, who works as a tattoo artist. Coming from a family with mixed White and Anglo-Norman ancestry, Grant has described her upbringing as creative and supportive of her later interests in media and the arts.
For her higher education, Grant attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where she majored in English Language and Literature. She graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. That academic foundation helped her develop a sharp critical voice, which she later applied to pop culture commentary, satire, and fiction writing.
Career Path in Media
Grant began her media career in 2007 as a pop culture editorial assistant at 236.com, a sister site of Huffington Post. After more than a year there, she moved to Jossip Initiatives as an editor, working from August 2008 to May 2009. In April 2009, she joined Nerve, and at the same time started blogging for Crushable.com, a pop culture news outlet that later became Clevver News.
In February 2011, Grant became a pop culture writer at Salon Media Group in New York. She spent seven months at Salon, then joined The New York Observer in September 2011 as a staff writer. Over nearly six years at the Observer, she rose to the position of arts and entertainment editor. The publication rebranded to Observer in 2016 as an online outlet.
After leaving the Observer in 2017, Grant served as Managing Editor at RealClear Media Group from November 2017 to April 2018. She then worked at Ranker in May 2018 and also contributed as a writer for Forbes for six months. Her other writing credits include Cosmopolitan, AV Club, Maxim, The Toast, Jezebel, and Bunny Ears. In late 2018, she was Senior Editor at Collider before transitioning to freelance work.
Current Roles and Creative Projects
Grant currently works as an on-air personality for Movie Trivia Schmoedown and as an entertainment consultant under the alias Videodrew. She is also a Senior Editor at dot.LA, where she covers the tech industry in Los Angeles. In addition to writing, she runs a YouTube channel called The Reactorverse alongside Eric Rodriguez and Adelia Chamberlain. Her channel features weekly streams such as VideoChronic Presents and Cinema Bias Presents, where she discusses movies, TV, and pop culture.
Earlier in her career, Grant hosted several podcasts, including PodDamnAmerica, Movie Trivia Schmoedown, and Hypecast. She also created a now-defunct blog called tvDownload, where she posted episode reviews of various television series until 2015. As a fiction writer and satirist, she produced pieces about celebrities like James Franco and Charlie Sheen, and notably wrote a well-received Bret Easton Ellis-themed fiction piece. She is also known for satirical works such as Alec Baldwin's Launch His Mayoral Campaign.
Marriage to Ari Melber
Drew Grant married Ari Melber in 2013, after meeting him at a social event in 2010. The couple dated for three years before tying the knot. Melber is a prominent MSNBC anchor, and Grant was his first wife. Their marriage lasted approximately three years; they divorced in 2017.
Since the divorce, Grant has not remarried. She dated photographer Richard Alexander beginning in 2017, and as of 2026, she is in a relationship with a video editor known as Nerd Chronic. Melber has also not remarried; he was allegedly linked to actress Alexandra Daddario following the divorce. Grant does not have any biological children.
Health Journey: Permanent Alopecia
Grant has been open about her struggle with permanent alopecia, an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss. In an Instagram post, she described her frustrating experience with dermatologists and the sudden recovery. She wrote:
"Two months ago vs two days ago. Dermatologists have to be the least helpful people on earth, I swear. For the past 2.5 years, 5 have told me 'nothing is wrong with your hair!' until last Dr, who told me I had permanent alopecia. In the interim I got great suggestions like 'avoid all mirrors' and 'invest heavily in wigs.'"
She continued: "And then, one day, after being in so much pain that I slept for a week straight, I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair had…grown back. Like, uniformly, across my entire head. I now have hair again." Grant added that no one could explain the change, but she accepted it as a medical mystery and expressed relief at being on the road to recovery.
Physical Attributes and Personal Trivia
Drew Grant stands at 5 feet 8 inches (172 cm) and weighs approximately 132 pounds (60 kg). She has brown hair and brown eyes. She has several tattoos on her body, particularly on her arms. She is also a dog owner, with two dogs named Tulpa and Sammi.
In her spare time, Grant enjoys swimming, reading, and watching movies. She also has a minor acting credit for appearing in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Her Zodiac sign is Gemini, and she identifies as Christian. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, while maintaining professional ties to New York City's media scene.
