Pulling from the Scordelis Story List

This week, we get to reconnect with a previous Indy intern: Alex Scordelis! He has achieved great success in Los Angeles and New York as an acclaimed writer and journalist.

What was it like during your time here at the Indy? I was an intern for almost a full year while I was a senior at UCSB — spring ’03 to spring ’04. I sat in the news bullpen next to future Indy senior writer Matt Kettmann and future Santa Barbara mayor Cathy Murillo (who were both reporters then). It was an amazing experience. Learning from Kettmann and Murillo was basically my journalism school. I wrote news briefs, the calendar, and Close-Ups (which were mini-profiles of notable Santa Barbarans). I got sent into the field pretty regularly and covered the Iraq War protests, which were heating up at the time.

Where did you go after? Are there any projects coming up? After working at the Indy, I graduated from UCSB and moved to New York, where I worked in publishing for a decade. I was
an editor at Paper magazine, and wrote for New York magazine, Vice, Rolling Stone, the Believer, Playboy, and Esquire. After publishing, I pivoted to writing for television and film, and wrote for a show called Billy on the Street and for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s election specials on
Hulu, among others. In terms of future projects, right now it’s just more essays and supporting the WGA’s writers’ strike.

What was the most memorable part of working on “Attack of 1942” for you? I keep a
Google doc of essay ideas, and writing something about the attack on Goleta has been sitting in
that doc for almost eight years. It was satisfying to find an angle and finally tackle the story. But
the most memorable part was getting to talk to Bob Gale, Neal Graffy, and Kim Stabile. I took
the train up from L.A. on weekends to conduct the interviews, and enjoyed speaking with each of
them.