Meet the Team
Want to know who is behind Ghouls? We have an incredible team of women, trans, and non-binary persons who make us as badass as we are. You can see our contributors below and don’t forget to give them a follow on social to find all their work.
Fancy joining the Ghouls team? Get in touch with us!
Zoë Rose Smith
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Zoë (she/her) created Ghouls to bring the horror community together, give marginalised voices a platform and showcase emerging writers. She is a horror film journalist who goes under the name of Zobo With A Shotgun. Her speciality lies in anything extreme & disturbing, erotic & sexual, CAT III and New French Extremity. She is co-host of the Tainted Love podcast, and used to run the Our Bloody Obsession podcast. Bylines in: Second Sight, 88 Films, Error 4444, Cineworld, Arrow, Fractured Visions, Umbrella Entertainment, and Filmhounds.
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Ariel Powers-Schaub
Brand Manager & Admin Assistant
Ariel Powers-Schaub (she/her) is an author and podcaster specializing in horror film analysis. Her first book, Millennial Nasties, dissects English-language horror from the 2000s, especially titles often dismissed as “torture porn.” She is one of the original Ghouls and loves this work with all her heart. She has bylines at Certified Forgotten, Dread Central, Second Sight, and Macabre Daily, and regularly contributes to The Pod and the Pendulum.
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Becci Sayce
Editor, Events & Contributor
Becci (she/her) is a freelance writer, journalist, and academic based in the UK specialising in entertainment news, film, and SEO. A lover of horror since she was a small Ghoul, Becci has bylines at the likes of FANGORIA, Dread Central, Rue Morgue, Total Film, Metro UK, Filmhounds Magazine, and more. Outside of the journalism world, Becci has contributed video and written essays to physical releases from the likes of Second Sight Films. When not editing pieces at Ghouls, you can find her and Liz planning spooky events across the Midlands for you to enjoy.
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Alice Boyd-Leslie
Web Designer, Social & Contributor
Alice (she/her) by day is a web developer and has helped rebrand the Ghouls website. Outside of work she has two podcasts, Drunken Horror and Not Another Teen Podcast (co-hosted with fellow Ghoul Liz Bishop), and writes not only for Ghouls but also FilmHounds. She is a big lover of slashers and 90s / 00s nostalgia as well as being deeply obsessed with the work of Yorgos Lanthimos.
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Liz Bishop
Events, Social & Contributor
Outside of being a lifelong fan of all things horror, Liz (she/her) is one half of the Not Another Teen Podcast team, where she discusses her not-so-guilty pleasure for the films she grew up loving. Liz has been with Ghouls Mag since its launch, and has also written for FilmHounds, Collider and Certified Forgotten. She is based in the heart of the Black Country UK, and is a typical tea-drinking, marmite-eating Brit. She spends most of her free time watching horror movies, readiing smutty books, and crying over her beloved Vancouver Canucks. She is also Buffy the Vampire Slayer's self-proclaimed Number One Fan.
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Iona Walling-Smith
Events Manager & Contributor
During the day Iona (she/her) works in factual television, developing new trash to feed the doomscrolling masses. By night she reviews films, writes books that never seem to find their ending, and plans spooky events to encourage people to join the horror hoards. Her masters degree in Global Film and Television theory has given her the academic tools to argue to the ends of the earth about why the Final Destination series is quite possibly the best thing to ever come out of the film industry.
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Sarah Miles
Events Manager & Contributor
Sarah Miles (she/her) is a London-based film critic and essayist. Nothing delights her more than monsters, ghosts, zombies, or the occasional folkloric ritual (on film, of course). When not watching films can usually be found in the London’s cemeteries.
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Lauren Hart
Events Manager & Contributor
Lauren Hart (she/her) is an academic and aspiring horror film-maker based in Newcastle. She is currently a PhD student at Northumbria University investigating the representation of those living with cancer in contemporary British and American horror films through the lens of disability and death studies. A child of the 90s video shop, she rented Braindead a few too many times and now regards Vera Cosgrove as her role model and fashion icon. She is obsessed with anything horror - from the most ethereal ghost story to the grueyest of body horrors – all are welcome at her table.
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Tori Potenza
Online Events & Contributor
Tori Potenza (she/they) is a critic and horror academic located in the greater NYC area. They are a programmer for Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and have bylines at; Moviejawn, Horror Press, Certified Forgotten, and Dread Central amongst others. You can also find their contributions to physical media releases with 88 Films, Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, and TerrorVision.
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Sam Munster
Contributor
Sam (she/they) is an excitable little chaos gremlin with ADHD and autism, who has an innate desire to share her love of film with the world. She may not be the most organised, eloquent or academic of reviewers, but is passionate and genuine. Sam has a podcast, Horror Hyperfixations, where she "looks at horror through a neurodivergent lens" and can be found on Instagram where she will likely be squealing over a beautiful blu-ray release, or yapping about her newest hyperfixation.
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Amber T
Contributor
Amber T (she/her) is a writer, critic and Japanese horror connoisseur, with further bylines at FANGORIA (where she is staff news writer), 88 Films, Radiance Films, Arrow Video, Umbrella Entertainment, Second Sight Films, Error 4444, TerrorVision, and more.
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Candy Allison
Contributor
Candy is a horror novelist, co-host on the international horror podcast Pod of the Damned, and a cat rescuer. She specializes in queer horror, body horror, exploitation/grindhouse, and 80s horror.
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Ariel Baska
Contributor
Ariel Baska (they/them) is a multi-award-winning, multiply Disabled filmmaker, festival director, and speaker on advocacy and accessibility in film, particularly for underserved communities. In their directorial debut, Our First Priority (2022), they sent a doctor to hell for telling a patient it's all in her head. The film traveled the world, won the Advocacy Award from Superfest Disability Film Festival, and was distributed by Alaska Airlines and Disability Media Network. Today, they write, direct, and produce horror and documentary while centering authenticity and accountability.
Ariel created Access:Horror, a film festival and industry summit celebrating the history, future, and impact of disability in the genre space. Access:Horror was recently recognized as one of the top 5 most accessible festivals in the world in Forbes.
Ariel advocates through film, but also speaking engagements, from National Geographic, to Lincoln Center, to the Berlinale, talking about disability, and access in the film industry.
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Isabelle Cocozza
Contributor
Isabelle Cocozza (she/her) is the Founder & Editor in Chief of Culture Film Publication. She is a film production student and photographer based in Bristol and Bedford, with areas of interest in cult film, vampire and body horror, and psychosexual filmmaking.
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Jen Raw
Contributor
Jen Raw (she/her) is a horror writer, reviewer, and speculative fiction co-editor for Poplar Press, an imprint of Wolsak & Wynn. Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, she brings a biting perspective to her work. Jen's writing can be found in the Hamilton Review of Books, Last Girls Club Magazine, and We Are Horror. In her free time, Jen can be found championing Canadian horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, and investigating things that go bump in the night.
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Jerry J Sampson
Contributor
Jerry J Sampson (she/her) is an award-winning screenwriter, fiction author, and film critic known for her work in horror and thriller genres. She is currently developing a true crime feature film with a well-known producer and her short film The Safety Games, directed by Jeremiah Kipp, debuted at DC Shorts International Film Festival.
Her screenplay Problematic won Best Feature Screenplay at the Renegade Film Festival and has been recognized by FilmQuest, Screamfest, and HorrOrigins. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, and the author of The Scream & Other Dark Stories.
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Jill Vranken
Contributor
Jill Vranken (she/they) is a London based writer and artist, with a passion for horror and the art of storytelling. Jill writes The Horror The Horror, a weekly Substack newsletter, discussing... well, exactly that. Jill has also written for NightTide Magazine, The Nottingham Horror Collective Zine and Monstrous Flesh, and is a staff writer for MovieJawn.
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Kelly-Marie Moore
Contributor
Kelly-Marie Moore (she/her) is a Dorset-based horror obsessive with an appetite for feminine rage, extreme cinema, and the sinister lurking beneath the familiar. Outside of writing, Kelly can usually be found trawling charity shops for additions to her collection of over 1,000 horror DVDs and Blu-rays, or curled up in a cosy corner with her cat while screaming like a banshee at the latest spooky video game. Somewhere along the way, she has also developed a habit of gently, and not so gently, converting the horror-averse into full-blown genre fans. A lifelong devotee, she has been hooked ever since an accidental childhood encounter with Cube (1997) and now happily devours everything from terrific trash to creeping, cerebral nightmares.
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Liz DeGregorio
Contributor
Liz DeGregorio (she/her) is a New York-based poet, writer and editor who is especially fascinated by queerness, the supernatural and body horror in literature and film. In addition to her work at Ghouls Magazine, her writing has appeared in Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Catapult Magazine, Bowery Gothic, Lucky Jefferson, ANMLY, SCARS Magazine, BUST, Ghouls Magazine, OyeDrum Magazine, Blink Ink, Dread Central, and other publications.
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Riley Jane Fox
Contributor
Riley (she/her) is a writer and lover of all things horror. She champions horror as a genre to take seriously through creating and engaging with other indie creators. When she’s not writing or consuming horror, she likes to walk her dog Indy and try to make music. She lives with her partner in Richmond, Virginia.
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Tadhg Bentham
Contributor
Tadhg (she/they) is a Queer creative based in Ireland. She is a lover of horror and purveyor of smut, and they delight in the crossover between the two genres. Tadhg studied philosophy at university and takes those skills gained to analyze films, and media through a Queer lens.
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Frankie Yates
Contributor
My love of horror started as a child, reading Goosebumps and watching Being Human on BBC 3. Growing up I developed a love for extreme horror, which turned into me working in the immersive horror industry for almost a decade now. I'm a proud crazy cat lady, I read tarot, I'm a (not so) secret musical theatre geek, and I am forever judged for my belief that the early 2000's was the best era of horror movies.
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Maria De Paula-Vázquez
Contributor
After seeing her first horror film, Prom Night (1980), at the age of five, Maria (she/her) has been a lifelong devotee of the genre, developing an encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema across decades, movements, and subgenres. A photographer originally from New York City, now based in London for over 20 years, she has worked with several film festivals and programmed her own seasons at Deptford Cinema. With tastes ranging from psychological thrillers to supernatural and exploitation horror, Maria has spent years analysing the genre’s themes, imagery, and emotional impact, with a particular focus on feminist and queer literary theory. She also co-hosted a film review podcast for Deptford Cinema, discussing cult and offbeat classics, including The Baby and Hausu. Maria currently lives in South London with her cat, Maya.
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Alix Austin
Contributor
Alix Austin (she/her) is a film director and interactive multimedia artist with a focus on video games. Her first feature, Kill Your Lover, is a toxic relationship body horror, playfully dubbed "art grindhouse" inspired by a love of the New French Extremity and South Korean Cinema. She is a jury member and panel moderator for film festivals, such as Hard:Line in Germany, among others. Her film work has been screened on Shudder, Alter, and Screambox.
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Courtney Mills
Contributor
Courtney She/Her is an aspiring author and horror fanatic. She first showed interest in the mystical and gory from a young age. When others were reading a fairytale to go to sleep, she was drifting off to the dulcet tones of screaming victims from Friday the 13th. Courtney specialises in horror through the female gaze. She has written many articles about this subject as well as creating a magazine and a website dedicated to short but gruesome stories.
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Harriet Fletcher
Contributor
Harriet Fletcher (she/her) is a writer and academic based in Cambridge, UK. In her day job, she is a lecturer who teaches Media Studies. On the side, she is a film journalist who has written reviews for various outlets, including Ghouls and The Conversation. She is the author of the book Gothic Celebrity: Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga (Bloomsbury, 2025), which explores the intersections of celebrity culture and the Gothic in literary texts, visual media and popular culture. She is a life-long horror fan interested in all aspects of the genre but is especially drawn to the dark allure of the Gothic. She is also interested in feminist film and enjoys dissecting representations of gender, celebrity and fandom on screen.
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Jesse Williams
Contributor
Jesse Williams (she/her) is a journalist, film academic and filmmaker based in Brighton, UK. She is a member of the journalist team at Directors Notes, and has previously contributed to publications such as Phantasmag and Culture Film Publication. Her filmmaking and studies typically focus on LGBTQIA+ depictions on screen, alongside horror and feminist cinema.
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Lakkya Palmer
Contributor
Lakkaya Palmer (She/her) is a researcher in horror cinema, with specialisms in gender representation, familial representation, the occult, and social, cultural, and political history. She is also a filmmaker (The Shedding, 2024) and cultural critic with work featured in Moving Pictures Film Club, Horror Homeroom, and Headpress, among others.
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Leyla Hamedi
Contributor
Leyla Hamedi (she/her) is a Turkish/Iranian writer and educator living in NYC. Through her writing, she explores the role of women in extreme genres within music, film, and TV with pieces that often touch on the macabre and esoteric. Her short fiction reimagines common themes within traditional fairy tales and contrasts them against old Turkish folklore, introducing the unknown demons and creatures of her culture to new audiences. You can find her work in Vice, PopMatters, Dread Central and most recently in Nightmare Magazine.
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Melanie Moyer
Contributor
Melanie Moyer (she/her) is an award-winning author of two novels and podcaster of horror and visual media. She co-hosts the horror podcast Splatter Chatter, has appeared on the animated film and TV podcast Overly Animated and the original Avatar The Last Airbender podcast From the Spirit World. She's written about horror for Popsugar, Certified Forgotten, and Moviejawn
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Marissa Pona
Contributor
Marissa Pona is the producer and co-host of Jersey Ghouls, a feminist and comedic horror podcast that tackles all things horror. Marissa is a frequent contributor to the Geekscape Network, and a horror film critic and writer who loves subtext-heavy arthouse horror almost as much as she loves a good-old 80's slasher flick. Marissa stalks the woods of New Jersey with her husband and 2 favorite final girls- her daughters.
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Melissa Cox
Contributor
Melissa Cox (she/her) is a found footage and short horror enthusiast based in the UK. She's previously written for Ghouls Magazine and Moving Pictures Film Club, and had contributed to podcasts including My Favourite Film and Anatomy of a Scream.
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Natalie Bulmer
Contributor
Natalie is a fashion and beauty content writer and editor who has been a spooky little oddity since birth but a true horror film fan since she was 10 years old, when a friend encouraged her to watch The Shining. The experience lured her to the dark side, where she has spent the last few decades! Found footage and folk horror are where her heart lies, but she won’t say no to any subgenre.
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Rabia Sitabi
Contributor
Rabia Sitabi-Stigter (she/her) is an international Pop Culture expert who works as the Head of Marketing for both Imagine Fantastic Film Festival and Kaboom Animation Festival. She’s known for her intersectional and multicultural insights into Horror and Anime and is often a speaker at international platforms (SxSW, NPO1, Crunchyroll, and more). Her love for niches within Asian horror can be found shared across several podcasts and blogs and she recently had an essay published for a physical release (Angel’s Egg 4K, Umbrella Entertainment)
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Val Pullin
Contributor
Valerie Pullin (She/Her) is a writer and horror enthusiast, who has written for Ghouls and Moving Pictures Film Club, and has contributed to Fats on Film podcast. With a masters in Historical Research, specialising in early modern Europe, social history and all things unusual, she often combines this with her love of horror and drifts down the misty path of all things occult, folk and haunted.
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Vannah Taylor
Contributor
Vannah Taylor (she/her) is a freelance critic and academic with a Master’s in Sociology. Her thesis analyzes the evolution of the rape-revenge narrative and its relation to popular feminist discourse and post-war cultural attitudes in the US. She has bylines at Fangoria Magazine, Second Sight Films, MovieJawn, Offscreen Central, JoBlo Horror Originals, and is part of the programming team for Femme Filth Film Fest. She can also be heard chatting horror as a guest on podcasts like Horror Queers and Certified Forgotten, to name a few.
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Grace Wood
Contributor
Grace Wood (she/her) is a writer and graduate student studying Victorian Gothic literature. In addition to Ghouls, she also writes short stories and book reviews for her horror-centric Substack, Spot of Blood.
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Nik Scully
Contributor
Nik Scully (they/them) is an Irish bookseller who adores all things horror, queer, and vampire-related. Their favourite book is Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, and their not-so-guilty pleasure is Twilight, both the books and the movies.
Halloween is a 365-days-a-year thing for them so you will almost always catch them wearing Halloween-themed clothes and watching something spooky. When not at their job, you can most likely find them posting online about queer issues, professional wrestling, attending concerts, and navigating the realities of getting an autism diagnosis in their late 20s.
You can follow their bookstagram account here @sweetnsourfxhkbooks to see them post about living the life of a queer spooky bookseller in Ireland.
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Payton McCarty-Simas
Contributor
Payton McCarty-Simas (she/they) is an author, programmer, and film critic based in New York City who loves all things horror. Payton’s writing has been featured in Rue Morgue, Fangoria, The Hollywood Reporter, and others, and she is the author of two books, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture, and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film. She lives with her partner and their cat, Shirley Jackson.
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