Faith Coley Salie (born April 14, 1971) is an American journalist, writer, actress, comedian, television, radio, and podcast host. She is a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and a panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. She hosted Science Goes To The Movies on PBS and CUNY TV. She is a storyteller for The Moth, with her story viewed over 4 million times. Her first book, Approval Junkie, "a collection of daring, funny essays chronicling the author's adventures during her lifelong quest for approval," was published by Crown in April 2016. Salie adapted it into a solo show which she performed Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theater in New York City in 2021. The play premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2019.
Early life and education
Salie was born in South Weymouth, Massachusetts,[1] to Robert Salie and Gail Coley Salie.[2] She grew up in Dunwoody, Georgia, with her two older brothers.[3] Salie was raised Roman Catholic.[4][5] Salie began dancing at age three and decided she wanted to be an actor after getting the lead in the fourth-grade class play. She began performing professional children's theatre at 13.[4] In college, she performed in plays and musicals with Matt Damon, Mo Rocca and China Forbes.[6]
Since Fair Game, Salie has hosted many podcasts, including Wait Wait Naked and Ashamed[15] (about the 20th anniversary of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!), Broadway Revival for Audible, Real Good for Stitcher, One Plus One for Wondery, and Authorized (about sex and romance in literature) for Audible. She has twice guest-hosted Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
In February 2011, she hosted a Bravo special of Approval Matrix, a TV adaptation of New York magazine's feature by the same name.[16]
Salie has been a contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning since 2009. She regularly does stories and commentaries on the show, on topics ranging from time travel to gender pronouns[19] to British vs. American English[20] to the journey of a pointe shoe to the Nutcracker stage.[21] She is a regular panelist on the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. She hosted the live, daily Sirius show News & Notes for the Entertainment Weekly channel in 2013.[12] In 2012, Salie hosted the National Book Awards.[22]
She has moderated events at venues such as the Paley Center for Media, Tribeca Film Festival, 92nd Street Y, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Public Library, the World Science Festival and Comic-Con.[23]
Approval Junkie and other writing
In Salie’s book Approval Junkie: My Heartfelt (and Occasionally Inappropriate) Quest to Please Just About Everyone, and Ultimately Myself, she shares stories of the lengths she’s gone to for validation, such as winning her high school pageant, choosing the dress to wear to her divorce, and undergoing a kind of exorcism to please her ex-husband, whom she calls her “wasband.”[24] She adapted the book into a play with Amanda Watkins, who directed both the Alliance Theatre's Hertz Stage in Atlanta[25][26] and the Off-Broadway[27] runs.
Salie has also written for The New York Times,[28]Time,[29]USA Today,[30] and McSweeney’s.[31]
Personal life
Salie is married to John Semel. They were married on October 9, 2011, in Rome.[32] The couple have a son, born in 2012, and a daughter, born in 2014. Salie has been very public about her fertility treatments and challenges and speaks often about becoming a mother for the first time in her 40s.
