About Christopher Null, author of Five
Stars! and
Half Mast
Christopher Null is an award-winning journalist, editor, and columnist. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Filmcritic.com, which was acquired by American Movie Classics in 2009, and its follow-up site, Film Racket. He also founded Mobile PC magazine, the first ever periodical focused on mobile technology, before spending 4 1/2 years writing about tech daily for Yahoo! as “The Working Guy.” Null has additionally worked for a variety of technology and business publications, and today he continues to write regularly for Wired, PC World, and other publications. He has been the tech columnist for Executive Travel magazine (published by American Express) since 2008. Today he runs a media company, Null Media, which provides editorial consulting, strategic direction, and writing services to media and non-media companies alike.
Null received an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin in 1996. His first novel, Half Mast, arrived in bookstores in 2002 and was heralded as “the best of contemporary American fiction” by the New York Resident. His 2005 book, Five Stars!, a how-to guide for aspiring film critics, is often used as a textbook for film criticism curriculum at a number of colleges and universities. A second edition was released in 2013.
Additional projects have included co-authoring the E-Business Technology Forecast (2002, PricewaterhouseCoopers) and the Network Administrator’s Reference (1999, Osborne/McGraw-Hill). Through Nullkron Productions, a web video and commercial production house, Null wrote and produced the commercial “Streetwalker” for icPlanet and directed the short film Scoot! He also wrote, produced, and starred in the short film Pressurecooker, which received raves at nearly a dozen film festival screenings throughout the late ’90s.
Chris has been profiled dozens of publications and programs, including Wired magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ESPN, Folio, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He was even quoted by the renowned Roger Ebert in his review of the film Emma. Chris is also a founding member (since 1997) of The Online Film Critics Society, and he is three degrees from Kevin Bacon. You can keep up with his daily rant at chrisnull.com and find his wine, spirits, and cocktail blog at Drinkhacker.com.