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Alexandra Attkisson Petri (, born March 15, 1988) is an American humorist, newspaper columnist, and 2025 recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. In 2010, she became the youngest person to have a column in The Washington Post. Petri runs the ComPost blog on the paper's website, on which she formerly worked with . In 2017, a piece of satire she wrote about president was miscategorized as news and included in one of the White House's daily press briefings. She was recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018.


Biography

Early life and education
Petri grew up in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., the of congressman and nonprofit executive Anne D. Neal, and attended the National Cathedral School. In high school she wrote plays for a competition at ; three of hers were chosen for performance. She also performed . She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University with a degree in , concentrating in , in 2010; while there she joined the Harvard Stand Up Comedy Society, worked with the Hasty Pudding Club, and wrote for the Internet comedy series On Harvard Time and for The Harvard Crimson. Her college roommate was . She was a summer intern at The Washington Post before she received a job with the paper. She is also a member of a playwrights' collective in Washington, D.C., called The Welders.


Career
Her book of essays, A Field Guide to Awkward Silences, was published in 2015. She has appeared on Jeopardy!, won prizes in the O. Henry Pun-Off, and performed at an international competition. Her play The Campsite Rule, a sex comedy whose title is derived from an idea taken from , was premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2013.

In December 2015, Petri created the parody Twitter account "Emo Kylo Ren", which envisioned the character as an angsty teenager obsessed with . The account went viral after being retweeted by and receiving attention from media outlets such as and , soon gaining more followers than Hot Topic. During the 8th Shorty Awards in 2016, the account won the award for best parody account. Petri revealed that she created this parody account in an interview with published on January 25, 2018.

Of her writing, Petri has said, "My goal is to be weirder than everybody else and hope that no one stops me. So far no one has." Writers and comedians she has listed as influences include , , , , , and William Shakespeare.

She made her comic book debut by writing the one-shot Annual #1, released on August 28, 2019.

In June 2020, Petri released her second book, Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why, a collection of essays on the Trump presidency years. In April 2023, she released her third book Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up), which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The Atlantic announced that it hired her in May 2025.


Personal life
In June 2018, Petri married Stephen Stromberg, an editorial writer at the Washington Post. They welcomed their first child in February 2022. They welcomed their second child in January 2025.


Works
  • A Field Guide to Awkward Silences, New American Library, 2016.
  • Nothing Is Wrong and Here is Why: Essays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
  • Alexandra Petri's US History: Important documents (I made up): Essays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.


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