Steph Spadaccini

Stephanie Spadaccini has been writing crossword puzzles for 30 years and working as a writer and editor of puzzles and games in general for the past 20 years.

She has been writing puzzles for PEOPLE for 20-plus years.

She has also constructed crossword puzzles for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, GAMES Magazine, and various other outlets. She worked as a writer and crossword constructor at GAMES Magazine, where she was also managing editor. As project editor at Portable Press, she assembled and edited the "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into"... series and seven books of variety and logic puzzles. For the Penguin Group, she wrote "The Big Book of Rules," a compendium of the rules of more than 300 indoor and outdoor games. She also spent two seasons writing "answers" for TV's "Jeopardy!"

Stephanie Spadaccini has 20-plus years experience writing PEOPLE Puzzlers. Her experience includes all kinds of puzzles, but if she has to work, her favorite way to spend time working is writing crosswords. When not writing crosswords, you'll find her glued to the TV or computer, watching whatever is the top-rated streaming movie or series of the moment. You might even find her at an actual movie theater! Her interests in puzzles and entertainment meet happily in her work constructing puzzles for PEOPLE.

After graduating from college in Manhattan (B.A., English -- what else?), Steph started writing crosswords and submitted her first puzzle to The New York Times. To her delight, it was accepted and set her on the puzzle path. Her experience since then has included working as project editor on a variety of "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" trivia and puzzle books. She also authored "The Book of Rules" for the Penguin Group, a compendium of the rules of more than 300 indoor and outdoor games.

She spent eight years at GAMES Magazine, thanks to her friend Will Shortz, who was senior editor at GAMES at the time. She began as associate editor and worked her way up to managing editor before the magazine went bi-monthly and had to lay off half the staff. So it was bye-bye New York GAMES, hello Hollywood game shows.

The one thing in Steph's background that most people want to hear more about is her work at "Jeopardy!" After working on two other game shows in L.A. -- "High Rollers" and (a short-lived version of) "College Bowl" -- Steph was asked to try out for a slot at "Jeopardy!" This involved writing a "board," i.e., a game of six categories, five questions each. She was especially fond of a category she called FOUR-LETTER BIRDS, thinking that would catch the eye of the producer. It did. The job itself was fun, but after a year and a half (two seasons), she had to leave L.A. -- and her job -- for personal reasons. Besides, she says, she'd written all her questions. These days she satisfies her thirst for trivia by playing pub trivia on a championship team in her neighborhood in San Francisco's East Bay.

PEOPLE, a Dotdash Meredith Brand, delivers the most trustworthy celebrity news and captivating human interest stories, connecting you to the pulse of American culture. Since our first issue hit stands in 1974, we have been striving to tell compelling stories about the people behind the issues, as opposed to just the issues themselves. We are your everyday escape, taking you inside the lives of intriguing stars, newsmakers, up-and-comers and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We serve and delight you by providing ideas about beauty, food and style through the lens of the people influencing the trends. And we are a force for good by telling stories of hope, optimism and kindness that drive conversation and inspire action. Learn more about us and our editorial guidelines.

Steph Spadaccini

Experience

About PEOPLE

Latest from Steph Spadaccini