Sophie Monks Kaufman is a writer and creative based in London who has worked as a culture journalist for a decade.
She specialises in film reviews, celebrity profiles and investigative features, having spent three years cutting those teeth as staff writer for independent film magazine, Little White Lies. She is not afraid to use her own emotional depths as a way into profound subjects that affect all sensitive people, delving into what it means to witness real death for Sight & Sound, turning grief inside out for Hazlitt, and the value of art in a crisis for Little White Lies.
Equally she can invisibilise herself, as the job requires, for well-researched profiles of dead movie stars or informative brochure copy.
She is open to exploring new terrain with the right clients and has worked with the condiments brand Sir Kensington’s to profile female butchers, spin a mystical tale of a rare ghost lobster and investigate conscious capitalism.
Sophie is driven by curiosity, integrity and a love of language to dive into subjects beyond her expertise, and is keen to collaborate with clients who share her values. She has created journalism for major national and international journalistic outlets, and written copy for colossal film brands, Netflix and Amazon Studios. She is ready to step into different worlds, too, and has a keen interest in social politics, physical health and mental health.
Sophie wants to promote understanding and combat stigma around mental illnesses of all descriptions. She has written about her decade-long struggle with bulimia here, and in 2016 co-hosted a podcast on the same subject, Spill Your Guts. In 2015 she teamed up with the feminist collective, Bechdel Test Fest, to programme a sold-out screening of Signe Baumane’s animated feature about her family history of suicide and depression, Rocks in My Pockets, promoted with this appearance on London Live. In 2018, she went into The Dragon Cafe – a safe community space for those with mental health struggles – to programme and lead a discussion around themes in Marwencol, a documentary about an artist with PTSD. In 2020, Sophie wrote a BFI FAN feature debunking the harmful myths about schizophrenia perpetuated by lazy movie tropes.