Jessica Allen

Jess Allen is excited to be back this season as THE SOCIAL's Correspondent, writing more stories for the show's website on everything from food, films, and books to science and history (You can read her latest pieces under The Jess Files). She also frequently appears as the fifth chair on Fridays with THE SOCIAL's co-hosts, and whenever anyone tells her to.. Before joining the team at THE SOCIAL, Jess was an assistant editor at Maclean's where she wrote arts and culture-related stories for the website and magazine. Her Toronto International Film Festival® coverage in 2011, her first time reporting on the festival, earned Maclean's a nomination at the National Magazine Awards, which - coincidentally - Jess and Lainey Lui co-hosted in June 2015. Following the completion of a Master's degree in the history of art at the University of Toronto, Jess spent a year in Florence, Italy working as an art history teaching assistant. After work, Jess maintains Foodie and the Beast, her relationship blog that masquerades as a food blog. She also pens a Metro column every Friday, My TV Dinner, in which she free-associates between two loves: food and film. She currently lives in Toronto with her partner of 121 years, Simon.