Meeta Agrawal Joins Culture

Please welcome Meeta Agrawal, our new Arts & Leisure editor.

Our Sunday section has long been a showcase for some of our most ambitious feature journalism and cultural criticism. Under the leadership of Sia Michel, who is now one of the Culture department’s deputies, A&L embraced longform features, essays and conceptual packages. Meeta will maintain that high level of quality while exploring ways in which to make it even more visually exciting, more reactive to the weekly zeitgeist and an even livelier forum for regular pieces from our world-class roster of feature writers and cultural critics.

Meeta comes to us from Entertainment Weekly, where she worked for 11 years, rising from correspondent to executive editor to deputy editor. During her last three years at EW, Meeta collaborated with the editor in chief to curate the magazine’s covers, negotiating and editing many of the stories herself. Additionally, she was in charge of print and digital coverage of TV, film, books, podcasts and pop music; led the magazine’s live event strategy; coordinated with its marketing and ad sales teams; and directed its signature digital and print franchises, including its Entertainers of the Year issue. Before her long tenure at EW, Meeta was a staff editor on Time Inc.’s relaunched Life magazine.

An avid reader of contemporary fiction, Meeta enjoys theater and live music. Not surprisingly, she devours all forms of television — episodic and streaming, prestige and multicam.

“I’m thrilled to be joining The Times, and to find a home in the Culture department,” she said. “Arts & Leisure is the pinnacle of cultural coverage, and I’m honored to work alongside such gifted editors, writers and critics.”

A native of Lake Charles, La., Meeta is a graduate of Dartmouth College and received a master’s degree in modern history from Oxford University.

She will join the Culture department on Monday, Oct. 22.

— Gilbert and Sia