Writer and editor based in Sydney, Australia
Lisa O'Brien is a freelance writer and editor from Sydney with extensive experience in print and online journalism. By day she is the Chief Subeditor at CLEO magazine, and before that was the Publisher of Travelzoo Australia.
Lisa first discovered the perks of writing at the age of 10, when she was a state finalist in the Nestle 'Write Around Australia' competition and won a backpack full of chocolate. More recently, Lisa has written for Time Out Sydney, TNT, Girlfriend, MANIA and Blue Mountains Review, as well as Online Opinion and Macquarie Network's Amazing Australians. She has also worked as a production intern for The Sydney Morning Herald and as a contributor to travel blog She Goes.
In 2010 Lisa completed her Master of Arts in Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she wrote a research paper about Australian media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Communication at the same university in 2007, specialising in a range of journalism and public relations subjects.
Before becoming a journalist, Lisa worked in a number of jobs including as a waitress and housekeeper at a haunted hotel in the south of England. She is originally from the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, but has also lived and worked in the UK and now resides in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
She will still write for chocolate.