about me

Chrissy Iley is renowned for her intimate celebrity profiles published in the Sunday Times Magazine, Observer Magazine, Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar. She was the 2015 winner of SoCal Journalism Awards’ Best International Interview for her interview of Hillary Clinton in the Daily Telegraph Seven Magazine and awarded Interviewer of the Year in the 2008 British Press Awards for her work on Demi Moore, The Police and Keira Knightley.

Chrissy started her interviewing career twenty years ago when she realised she had a peculiar gift – people, including celebrities, wanted to tell her things. When Courtney Love does an interview with anyone else she asks her publicist, “Can we Chrissy Ileyise this?”meaning can we make it interesting.

Chrissy has been known to take subjects hostage for hours if not days including Dustin Hoffman, one of her first interviews, who wanted to talk about the difference between men and women but ended up in a mutual foot massage. Others on the list of willing interviewees have been Helen Mirren, Mel Gibson, Alicia Keys, Harrison Ford, Anjelica Houston, Lily Allen, Yoko Ono, Barbra Streisand, Michael Douglas, Elton John, Cherie Blair, Hilary Swank, Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, John Travolta, Susan Sarandon and Renee Zellwegger, a former neighbour of Chrissy’s whose cat Grady was a present from Chrissy when her own cat had kittens.

Victoria Beckham, Johnny Depp and Bono are favourites among her subjects. As well as her gift for probing her subjects face to face, Chrissy made her mark as a columnist for the long running and iconic column Relationship of the Week in Sunday Times Style. She also had a pseudonymous column in the same magazine under the name Hairbitch, discussing the hidden psychology of celebrities and their hair. Chrissy has made many guest appearances in a variety of documentaries and appeared on stage at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, interviewing Julian Clary for his show An Audience with Julian Clary.
Chrissy divides her time between London and Los Angeles (that way, she can be both feisty and sympathetic).

AWARDS

Winner, 62nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards for interview with Roseanne Barr, Sunday Times Magazine – Personality Profile, Foreign Correspondents presented by Los Angeles Press Club, June 2020
Winner, 61st Annual Southern California Journalism Awards for Exclusive U2 Interview, Sunday Times Magazine – Personality Profile, Foreign Correspondents presented by Los Angeles Press Club, June 2019.
- PERSONALITY PROFILE Chrissy Iley, Sunday Times Magazine, “Exclusive U2 interview: Chrissy Iley meets the band on tour to talk RSI, clean eating and Bono’s near-death experience” https://bit.ly/2JDWFWu
- Judges’ comment #1: Chrissy Iley meets the band on tour to talk RSI, clean eating and Bono’s near-death experience.
- Judges’ comment #2: In a category where many submissions had impressive access to highprofile subjects, this profile stood out for its intimacy and compelling narrative. The author handled her relationship with the band with transparency. She captured moments both extraordinary and unglamorous. It’s an engrossing read.
Winner for interview of Michelle Williams on the Death of her Beloved Ex and Raising their Daughter Alone [DATE OF AWARD]
Winner, 60th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards for interview with Denzel Washington on Prejudice, Black Power and Why America Needs to Get Behind President Trump, Sunday Times Magazine – Movie Personality Profile, Print Under 2,500 Words – presented by Los Angeles Press Club, June 2019