KCRW’s Madeleine Brand has been named the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2026 Luminary Awardee for Career Achievement.
“I am thrilled to be the recipient of this prestigious award. It’s such an honor to be recognized by the Los Angeles Press Club,” Brand said.
Brand is an award-winning journalist, interviewer and radio host whose career has spanned more than three decades in public media. A Los Angeles native, she has become one of Southern California’s most recognizable voices in journalism, known for combining serious reporting and probing interviews with an accessible, conversational style.
Brand is currently the host of KCRW’s Press Play, the award-winning daily news and culture program she created in 2013. The show covers politics, culture and the defining issues of the day.
“Madeleine Brand is truly a staple of Los Angeles public radio. The LA Press Club is honored that she has agreed to accept this award,” said Los Angeles Press Club President Danny Bakewell, Jr.
Previously, she worked at NPR for 13 years, where she was a correspondent and later the host for the news magazine show, Day to Day. She has won numerous national and local awards for her reporting and interviews.
She graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in English and earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she later taught documentary radio.
The Luminary Award for Career Achievement will be presented at the 19th National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards Gala on Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown LA.
In addition to honoring Brand, there will be several other honorees and prizes awarded for the best A&E journalism in the U.S.
Hundreds of journalists and media executives are expected to attend this prestigious event. Proceeds from the gala are the largest source of income for the Los Angeles Press Club, a 501(c) 3 that speaks for journalists across all media platforms. All contributions are tax-deductible.
For more information about this event or to sponsor, advertise or buy tickets, visit www.LApressclub.org or contact LAPC Executive Director Diana Ljungaeus at (310) 210-1860 or email Diana@LApressclub.org.
The LAPC is one of the oldest and most respected journalism organizations in the nation with a storied history of honoring the most celebrated reporters of the past century. In recent years, the Los Angeles Press Club has continued to uphold its tradition of acknowledging excellence in spite of the fact that journalism itself has struggled in the face of ever-declining budgets.
