Jen Yamato joining L.A. Times Calendar staff as a film reporter

Jen Yamato is joining the Calendar staff as a film reporter beginning Jan. 2. Yamato has been an entertainment reporter and critic for the last two years at the Daily Beast, where she covered film, television and film festivals from Toronto to Sundance.

Yamato began her career as an editor at Rotten Tomatoes before becoming the West Coast editor and then executive editor of Movieline. She later was a reporter and editor at Deadline Hollywood, where she followed major stories including the Midnight Rider tragedy and how the death of Sarah Jones shook up the entire film industry.

As a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a UC Berkeley alumna, Yamato once swore she would never live in L.A. Yamato said she looks forward to joining The Times to “shine a light on the business and magic of making movies from the place where they all began.”

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