Joi-Marie McKenzie Lewis is an Emmy Award-winning fifth-generation writer and editor.
She’s also the author of the critically-acclaimed period memoir, The Engagement Game, out now. McKenzie Lewis scored her book deal after sending 20 pages of her memoir to an editor for feedback, and that editor turned around and offered her a deal. She later turned the book into a six-episode capsule podcast of the same name.
McKenzie Lewis also penned The Pursuit of Porsha: How I Grew Into My Power and Purpose, the memoir of The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams, out now. Her work also appears in Kasi Lemmons: Interviews, a collection of interviews highlighting the work of the esteemed Eve’s Bayou filmmaker, edited by Christina N. Baker.
Along with helping Black women tell their stories and reminding others to own their narratives, McKenzie Lewis is the editor-in-chief of Business Insider’s life division, overseeing entertainment, lifestyle, digital culture, health, parenting, and relationships coverage across three continents.
While serving as deputy editor of entertainment at Insider, McKenzie Lewis earned several journalism awards and recognition from the Los Angeles Press Club, GLAAD Media Awards along with the National Magazine Awards. She was also nominated for the editor executive of the year in 2022 by the Drum Awards. As editor-in-chief of Business Insider, she and her team earned recognition from the ASME Awards, the LA Press Club, the National Association of Travel Journalists, and the Society of Publication Designers.
Previously, she worked for Essence magazine. Before that, she had worked for nearly a decade in network news from NBC News to ABC Radio, ABC News, and Good Morning America, where she earned an Emmy Award and several Edward R. Murrow Awards. She’s also freelanced for her family’s The Afro American Newspaper, the longest-running newspaper owned by a Black family in the country. McKenzie Lewis also created The Fab Empire, a now-defunct award-winning website that covered society, celebrities and local events in various cities around the U.S.
McKenzie Lewis is an in-demand panelist and workshop facilitator. She has spoken about owning your narrative, writing a memoir, entrepreneurship, blogging, growing an audience online, and social media topics at Columbia University, University of Maryland College Park, Howard University and LIM College. She’s also spoken at the prestigious 92Y: Cultural Institution and Community Center in New York City along with Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C.
She’s also moderated conversations with A-list celebrities for A24, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and Barnes and Noble in New York City. She also sits on the board of Color Vision, an organization that helps, educates and informs women of color in creative fields.
McKenzie Lewis attained a Master of Science in Digital Media from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, from the University of Maryland, College Park.
A product of a Christian household, McKenzie Lewis is the youngest daughter of Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first female bishop in the A.M.E. Church’s 200-plus year history, and her husband, Dr. Stan McKenzie, a former guard in the National Basketball Association. She is the great-granddaughter of Vashti Turley Murphy, one of the 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.—the largest community service organization for Black college-educated women in the world. She’s also the great-granddaughter of Carl J. Murphy, the longtime editor-publisher of the Afro-American Newspaper.
McKenzie Lewis is a proud wife and mother of three (one of whom is an adorable miniature dachshund).