Mina Kimes

Mina Kimes
Kimes on NFL Live in 2021
Born
Mina Mugil Kimes[1]

(1985-09-08) September 8, 1985 (age 39)
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Alma materYale University (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Years active2007–present
EmployerESPN
SpouseNick Sylvester (m. 2015)
Children1

Mina Mugil Kimes (born September 8, 1985) is an American journalist who specializes in business and sports reporting. She has written for Fortune, Bloomberg News, and ESPN.[2][3][4] She is a senior writer at ESPN and an analyst on NFL Live.[5]

Early life

Kimes was born September 8, 1985, in Omaha, Nebraska.[6] Her father served in the United States Air Force as a captain.[7] Kimes is of Korean descent on her mother's side.[8][9][10]

Kimes moved to Arizona with her family during her teenage years. She attended Mesquite High School in Gilbert, Arizona and was valedictorian.[11] She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English.[2][12]

Career

Business journalism

Kimes's first position after college was at Fortune Small Business Magazine in 2007.[2] As a business journalist, she won awards from the New York Press Club, the National Press Club, and the Asian American Journalists Association, amongst other places.[13][14] Her 2012 investigation entitled Bad to the Bone exposed the unauthorized use of cement to repair bone tissue, with lethal consequences, for which she won the Henry R. Luce Award.[2][15] The Columbia Journalism Review included her exposés among its business must-reads for 2012.[16] In 2014, she received the Larry Birger Young Business Journalist Prize from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.[2]

She joined Bloomberg News in 2013 as an investigative reporter.[2] Her profiles of business executives Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar, in a piece titled King Kat, and Sears executive Eddie Lampert, in a piece titled The Sun Tzu at Sears, won her the Front Page Award for business reporting.[17]

ESPN

Kimes in 2019

Kimes was offered a position by ESPN editors in 2014 after she wrote an essay on Tumblr about a "bond between herself and her dad and the Seattle Seahawks."[2][18] At ESPN, she has written about young sports superstars,[19] such as University of Houston basketball player Devonta Pollard.[20] She has written profiles of NFL players Aaron Rodgers, Darrelle Revis, Tyrod Taylor, Antonio Brown, Baker Mayfield, and Michael and Martellus Bennett, and wrote a feature on Korean League of Legends star Faker.[8][21][22] She co-wrote with Jeff Passan a piece on sexual harassment claims against former New York Mets GM Jared Porter.[23]

Kimes is an active panelist on Around The Horn and has appeared on First Take, Highly Questionable, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Pardon the Interruption, Debateable, and High Noon.[24][25] She hosts an NFL-focused podcast entitled The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny, a reference to her dog.[5] She signed with Omaha Productions in 2022 to be producers of her podcast.[26]

From October 2019 until July 2020, Kimes hosted ESPN Daily, a daily news podcast.[27][28][24] On June 30, 2020, Kimes was announced as an NFL analyst for ESPN's relaunch of NFL Live for the 2020 NFL season.[29]

Other work

In 2019, Kimes was hired by the Los Angeles Rams to be a color commentator for their preseason football games.[30]

Kimes was a co-host, along with Amanda Dobbins, of The Ringer's Big Little Live after-show about the HBO series Big Little Lies.[31] She co-hosts Love is Kimes with Davis Dennis Jr, a show about the Netflix series Love is Blind.[32]

On November 29, 2020, Kimes helped celebrity chef David Chang become the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, along with Alan Yang as his supporter, via the phone-a-friend lifeline on the million-dollar question.[33]

Personal life

Kimes married music executive Nick Sylvester in 2015. They live in Los Angeles with their dog Lenny.[34] In 2023, Kimes had her first child, a boy.[35][36]

She has expressed her support for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners, in part due to her father being from Seattle.[18]

References

  1. ^ Kimes, Mina [@minakimes] (October 28, 2022). "https://t.co/1o9f1ARkLs https://t.co/73s81SRB7d" (Tweet). Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Keith J. Kelly, May 7, 2014, New York Post, ESPN drafts Bloomberg's Mina Kimes, Retrieved July 25, 2015, "...Although the 28-year-old writer snagged a fair number of awards for investigative business stories..."
  3. ^ Debbie Emery, February 3, 2019, The Wrap, Super Bowl LIII Is 'About Experience vs Youth,' ESPN's Mina Kimes and Dianna Russini Say, Retrieved March 22, 2019
  4. ^ Shlomo Sprung, May 2, 2018, Awful Announcing, ESPN's Mina Kimes is thriving in a multi-platform role at the network, Retrieved March 22, 2019
  5. ^ a b "Mina Kimes". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  6. ^ Kimes, Mina [@minakimes] (July 8, 2016). "1995 Orange Bowl--Tommie Frazier leading Nebraska's comeback (I was born in Omaha so I rooted for the Huskers) https://t.co/sK1tBXg7rP" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via Twitter.
  7. ^ Kimes, Mina [@minakimes] (September 4, 2020). "my pops is a beast 💪 https://t.co/H3uvKTOJWS" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ a b Demkiewicz, Joanna (October 8, 2014). "Q&A with Mina Kimes, staff writer for ESPN: ESPN'S NEW COLUMNIST TALKS SPORTS WRITING AND UNDERDOGS". Riveter Magazine. Retrieved July 26, 2015. In 2009, she won the Nellie Bly Cub Reporter Award, ... sports writing exclusively... written on Ray Rice, tattoos and fandom and MLB's executive gender whoopsie....
  9. ^ Mina Kimes, Tumblr, Papas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Niner Fans, Retrieved October 4, 2016
  10. ^ Kimes, Mina [@minakimes] (January 13, 2023). "It's because I'm Asian! Happy Korean American day 🇰🇷 https://t.co/M9gevtxT0W" (Tweet). Retrieved March 28, 2023 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Kimes, Mina [@minakimes] (June 21, 2020). "Today on Highly Sociable: @katienolan, @PabloTorre and I played my new favorite game, Hey Robot. It got a little feisty at the end.... https://t.co/B7cdEShxBk" (Tweet). Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via Twitter.
  12. ^ "Senior Inductees - Yale Phi Beta Kappa". pbk.yalecollege.yale.edu.
  13. ^ "NY Press Club Awards Recognize Times' David Barstow, BusinessWeek". mediabistro. May 20, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  14. ^ "The End of Oil?" (PDF). Retrieved December 10, 2014. Fortune Small Business's Mina Kimes ... Nellie Bly for her article "The End of Oil,"...
  15. ^ Keith J. Kelly, April 12, 2013, New York Post, Sign of the Time: Sour notes at Luce Awards, Retrieved July 25, 2015, "...magazine winners were announced, including Outstanding Story by Fortune's Mina Kimes (now with Bloomberg) for "Bad to the Bone," about the unauthorized use of a bone cement, which killed patients; ..."
  16. ^ Chittum, Ryan (December 26, 2012). "Must-reads of 2012: business". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  17. ^ Newswomen's Club of New York, Front Page Awards Recognize New York Newswomen: Newswomen's Club of New York to Present Awards at November Gala Archived July 21, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved August 3, 2015, "...Business Reporting: Mina Kimes, Bloomberg News..."King Cat" and "The Sun Tzu at Sears" .... The Front Page Awards honor journalistic excellence by newswomen in newspapers, television, wire services, photography, online, magazines, and radio....."
  18. ^ a b Kimes, Mina (January 17, 2014). "How a Football Team Brought Me and My Father Together". Slate Magazine. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  19. ^ Steve Mullis, June 15, 2015, NPR, Love, Coding, Yuccies, And The 'NPR Sound', Retrieved July 25, 2015, "... This piece by Mina Kimes of ESPN does a fantastic job of illustrating who these young superstars are, ..."
  20. ^ Mina Kimes, October 30, 2014, ESPN The Magazine, Free To Go: Devonta Pollard's mother was his best friend and coach. Now she's in prison for kidnapping, and he's one of the witnesses who testified against her. As the former top recruit starts over in Houston, can he learn to play for himself?, Retrieved July 26, 2015
  21. ^ "From The Mag: The Unkillable Demon King". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  22. ^ Kimes, Mina (July 17, 2019). "Baker Mayfield isn't afraid of the hype". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  23. ^ Kimes, Mina; Passan, Jeff (January 19, 2021). "New York Mets GM Jared Porter acknowledges sending explicit images to female reporter when he worked for Chicago Cubs". ESPN.com.
  24. ^ a b "Mina Kimes to Host New "ESPN Daily" Podcast as Part of New Agreement". ESPN Press Room U.S. October 10, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  25. ^ "Mina Kimes". ESPN Press Room. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  26. ^ "The Mina Kimes Show Featuring Lenny Expands". BSM media. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  27. ^ Strauss, Ben (October 10, 2019). "Mina Kimes will host ESPN's new morning podcast". The Washington Post.
  28. ^ Steinberg, Brian (October 20, 2019). "Mina Kimes Helps ESPN Kick Off 'Daily' Podcast". Variety. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  29. ^ "ESPN to Relaunch NFL Live in August with New Host Laura Rutledge and Analysts Marcus Spears, Dan Orlovsky, Mina Kimes and Keyshawn Johnson". ESPN. June 30, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  30. ^ Feldman, Jacob (August 1, 2019). "ESPN's Mina Kimes Will Be Preseason Analyst for the Los Angeles Rams". SI.com. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  31. ^ "Watch the 'Big Little Live' Finale". The Ringer. July 21, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  32. ^ "Love Is Kimes". YouTube.
  33. ^ Lowe, Lindsay (November 30, 2020). "David Chang is the 1st celebrity to win $1 million for charity on 'Millionaire'". TODAY.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  34. ^ Tornoe, Rob (October 18, 2019). "ESPN Daily podcast host Mina Kimes has Philly ties and an appreciation of Terry Gross". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  35. ^ Hernandez, Victoria (July 12, 2023). "Mina Kimes announces pregnancy at ESPY Awards". USA Today. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  36. ^ Broyles, Ryan (October 4, 2023). "Mina Kimes Baby Reveal Was So on Brand". Pro Football Network. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
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