Donnell Alexander

Donnell Alexander (born July 30, 1966) is a writer, editor, filmmaker, and publisher. He is author of the memoir Ghetto Celebrity and the essay "Cool Like Me: Are Black People Cooler than White People?" He originated the animated short "."
He attended Sacramento City College from 1985 to 1987 and California State University, Fresno (1987-1991), after which he became a contributing editor at the Chico News & Review. Alexander went on to work at the San Fransisco Bay Guardian and LA Weekly before joining the original writing staff of ESPN the Magazine.
The San Francisco Chronicle and AOL's Black Voices named the acclaimed Ghetto Celebrity one of 2003's best books. Alexander supported his memoir with literary events that included the Wet Daddy and Fresno Famous festival bills. Among those taking part in the Wet Daddy events were Toure, Victor LaValle, Neal Pollack, Danyel Smith, Mat Johnson, and Eisa Davis. The band Rademacher performed on the Fresno Famous festival bill. In the years since, Alexander has appeared at over 100 literary events including a speakeasy, university and elementary classrooms, and San Francisco's Litquake, America's largest literary festival. He opened for Marc Maron.
In 2009, Alexander's co-production "Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No" was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, where the animated short was given Honorable Mention in the short film category. The short, which began as a radio narrative on NPr's Weekend America program, went on to win an Audience Award at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as recognition from Cinema Eye, the Webbys, the Expression en Corto and Jeruselem International Film Festivals . Yahoo Sports wrote that "Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No" merits consideration as one of the all-time great baseball films. To date, the short has over 2.7 million YouTube hits.
In 2012, Alexander created and published the enhanced ebook Beyond Ellis D, which included three new Dock Ellis short films that Kirkus Reviews deemed "terrific." "The Ballad of Dock Ellis" episode of KCRW's Unfictional features Alexander, as well as Greg Proops, Jim "Mudcat" Grant, and Donald Hall. It is one of the radio show's most popular podcast downloads.
In 2012 Alexander began the San Fransisco-based digital publishing company Alexander / Swift. The Smithsonian Institute has invited Alexander to take part in its 2014 "American Cool" symposium.
Alexander has lived in Sacramento, Fresno, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, California, as well as Brooklyn, New York and his present home, Portland, Oregon.

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