Gillian Russo

Gillian "Gil" Russo is the associate editor of New York Theatre Guide. She joined the editorial team in 2021 as an assistant editor after graduating Fordham University at Lincoln Center that year with an honors degree in journalism and theatre. She is based in Manhattan.

Originally from Connecticut, Gillian began taking dance lessons at age 3, and her desire to do even more dancing (especially tap) eventually led her to theatre. She knew her turn as Frau Schmidt in The Sound of Music wouldn't lead to a performance career, but she still loved the art form, and a Journalism 101 class at a local theatre that was producing Newsies introduced her to the world of theatre journalism. Her arts writing has since appeared in Broadway News, Backstage Magazine, Plays To See, The Fordham Observer, and more. Her full portfolio of writing and multimedia work is here.

Outside work, she enjoys jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, The New York Times Spelling Bee, game shows, baking, and party planning, much of which she tweets enthusiastically about alongside theatre. She still dances and choreographs in her spare time, hoping to someday teach and/or perform her routines outside her kitchen. Her favorite musicals, in part for sentimental reasons, remain Newsies and The Sound of Music, and her favorite play is Our Dear Dead Drug Lord. She saw it eight times in two months.