Shea Serrano

Shea Serrano is an American author, journalist, and former teacher. He is best known for his work with the sports and pop culture websites, The Ringer and Grantland, as well as his books, including The Rap Year Book, Basketball (and Other Things), and Movies (and Other Things), all of which were The New York Times #1 best-sellers. Writing about Serrano for GQ, Chris Gayomali said: "If you were to draw a triple Venn diagram of hoops, trunk bangers, and jokes made at the expense of J. Cole, Grantland writer Shea Serrano would be smack-dab in the center, probably wearing a Tim Duncan jersey." Serrano's activity and humor on Twitter have earned a devoted following, nicknamed the FOH Army.

Serrano was born in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in the neighborhood of Valley Hi. He is Mexican-American. He graduated from Sam Houston State University, where he started as a criminal justice major but eventually earned a degree in psychology. He also was in Omega Delta Phi. After graduating from college, Serrano moved to Houston, where he worked in construction before becoming a middle-school science teacher. He taught 8th-grade science at a Title 1 school in Houston for nine years.

Serrano began writing in 2007 as a way to supplement his family's income when his wife, pregnant with twins, was put on bed rest. After briefly writing for the Near Northwest Banner, Serrano freelanced for the Houston Press. He predominately wrote about hip-hop after noticing that most of the writers only wrote about rock music despite Houston being a cornerstone of southern rap music.

Serrano's first work that drew national attention was his Houston Press piece on rapper Trae tha Truth's ban from a Houston radio station and the rapper's subsequent lawsuit against the station. This piece allowed him to earn a place at the Houston Press’ sister publication, the LA Weekly. Serrano continued to earn national attention with his pieces about his children and stories about the songs played at his school dance and birthday party. 

While there, he wrote a humorous piece describing having sex with his wife while listening to Drake. Grantland writer Molly Lambert saw the piece and passed it to her editors, who then invited Serrano to freelance for them. His first piece was about gift shopping with the rapper 2 Chainz. Serrano joined the full-time Grantland staff in July 2015. In July 2016, Serrano moved with much of the Grantland team to Bill Simmons' new entertainment platform, The Ringer.

Serrano has also written for GQ, ESPN, LA Weekly, XXL, Rolling Stone, MTV, and Vice. Serrano's first book, Bun B's Rap Coloring and Activity Book, was published on 17 September 2013. The book consists of coloring and activity pages based on popular rappers. The work was a collaboration with Houston rapper Bun B, although Serrano wrote and illustrated the book himself.

Serrano's second book, The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed, was published on 13 October 2015 by Abrams Image. It soon appeared on The New York Times Best Seller List for the advice, how-to and miscellaneous category and culture category. In March 2016, the book was optioned for a documentary series. In September 2016, the book was listed by Billboard as one of the 100 best music books of all time.

Serrano's third book, Basketball (and Other Things), was published in October 2017. Illustrator Arturo Torres, Serrano's collaborator on The Rap Year Book, also illustrated Basketball (and Other Things). It debuted at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list for the advice, how-to and miscellaneous category. In November 2017, it climbed to number one on The New York Times best-seller list for the sports and fitness category. On 31 December 2017, former U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned Basketball (And Other Things) in a Facebook post describing his favorite books of the year.

Serrano's fourth book, Movies (And Other Things), was published in October 2019 and became his third consecutive number-one bestseller on The New York Times best-seller list.