Sharilyn Johnson

Sharilyn Johnson is a Toronto-based entertainment journalist specializing in comedy. She’s written for the Toronto Star, A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, and NOW Magazine, and from 2008-2015 ran the comedy news site Third Beat Magazine. Sharilyn has also appeared nationally on the CBC Radio programs LOL and Definitely Not The Opera.

Sharilyn earned her Colbert Report nerd cred by attending 13 tapings of the show and several live q&a events with Colbert and his writers. In 2008, she learned the ins and outs of the Report's writing process under executive producer Tom Purcell, in a course aptly titled "Writing for the Colbert Report." She wrote and performed the solo stage show Fake News Fangirl, about the world of Daily Show and Colbert Report fandom, and toured it to theatre festivals across Canada. In 2013, she was one of six Colbert fans studied by Stanford University students as part of the "Understanding Superfans and their Heroes" course curriculum.