Movie Knight

For nearly a decade, Shea Serrano spent his days teaching science to unruly middle schoolers in Houston. Whenever he found a spare moment, the San Antonio native wrote for the Houston Press, The Village Voice, Complex—anyone who’d cut him a check for his take on topics such as coaching middle school football or Texas hip-hop. His wife, Larami Serrano, a former teacher, wasn’t working because daycare costs for their twins were about as much as her salary. So Serrano wrote for extra money to help feed his growing family.

Then in 2015, Serrano took a leap of faith: He quit teaching and began writing full time. , the pop culture and sports blog, hired him as a staff writer, and just months later, it shuttered. Since then, his irreverent prose and affable (where he’s a staff writer); and helped raise over $130,000 for Hurricane Harvey victims. Serrano’s books—whimsical musings about rap, basketball, and movies—have propelled him to bestseller list for 2015’s , 2017’s , and most recently 2019’s . He and Arturo Torres—the Dallas-based artist who illustrates Serrano’s books—are the first Mexican Americans to ever hold this honor three times.