Forrest Hartman's Biography

Forrest Hartman has more than a decade of daily newspaper experience, including eight years as the arts editor and film critic of the Reno Gazette-Journal, the most widely circulated newspaper in Northern Nevada. An accomplished film and television writer, Forrest has interviewed many of the biggest names in entertainment, including Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis, Jennifer Hudson, Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Leonard Nimoy.

His accomplishments have been recognized in the Nevada Press Association's Better Newspaper contest each year that he has worked for the Gazette-Journal, most notably with a first place for Entertainment Writing in 2002 and a second place for Critical Writing in 2007.

Offering a rare blend of creative and technical strength, Forrest has worked in almost every facet of the editorial process, including story planning, writing, page design, line editing and the creation of Web-first content. He has also been a key employee and innovator at each company he has worked for.

At the Oroville Mercury-Register, he was promoted from assistant sports editor to business editor and was frequently charged with editing and designing the front page of the newspaper as well as the business sections.

As entertainment editor at the Appeal-Democrat in Marysville, Calif., he significantly expanded the newspaper's weekend entertainment section, nearly doubling its size and helping it to become one of the most popular items in the paper. After that, he was promoted to projects editor, where he organized and executed special sections and helped with the overall look of the newspaper, even re-designing the masthead.

In Reno, Forrest immediately established himself as a talented and popular general arts writer, as well as an authoritative critical voice on theater, film and television. Most of his stories of national interest, including a weekly column about film, are distributed throughout the U.S. by Gannett News Service.

Always mindful of the changing media landscape, Forrest has taken care to train in new media. He was instrumental in starting a newspaper-television cross-promotion with Reno's CBS affiliate, KTVN-TV. As part of that program, he presents weekly film and DVD reviews on television, bolstering the Gazette-Journal's reputation as the No. 1 source of entertainment news in Northern Nevada. He also makes weekly appearances on one of Reno's most popular morning radio programs, broadcast on Alice at 96.5 FM.  

Forrest maintains his own non-commercial Web site — www.ForrestHartman.com — and uses his multimedia background to create Web-based content for the Gazette-Journal and, occasionally, Gannett News Service. He received a bachelor's degree in Information and Communication Studies (with an emphasis on Journalism) and a minor in music from California State University, Chico, in 1990, and he is a member in good standing of the Las Vegas Film Critics Society and Broadcast Film Critics Association.