Sam Lansky

Biography

Sam Lansky (born September 23, 1988) is an American journalist, author and screenwriter. Lansky was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. After his parents divorced, he lived with his father in Manhattan and attended the Dwight School. Lansky was forcibly entered into a wilderness rehabilitation in Utah at the age of seventeen. Lansky studied at Vassar College and The New School, where he graduated with a degree in creative writing. Subsequently he worked as a freelance music critic, contributing to New York magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Out, among others. Lansky joined the editorial staff of Time in 2014 and became their West Coast editor in 2018. He interviewed and profiled Taylor Swift for Time after she was picked as the Person of the Year in 2023. In 2016, he released his first book The Gilded Razor, a memoir of his troubled teenage years. Lansky's debut novel, Broken People, was published by Hanover Square Press in 2020. In 2023, it was reported that he was the ghostwriter of Britney Spears' memoir, The Woman in Me. Lansky was an executive producer of Tommy Dorfman’s directorial debut I Wish You All the Best (2024) and was a co-writer of the sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025).