About Us
Founded in 2014, Soap Hub is the product of more than a combined century of passion, knowledge, and understanding of soaps. Between our team, we have over 100 years of soap watching and soap writing under our belts, and we created this website to bring you our vision of what a soap publication should be.
We aim for Soap Hub to always be a place soap fans can come and find all the information they need on the stories, stars, and behind-the-scenes happenings. From flashback videos and stories to exclusive interviews, detailed and entertaining spoilers, and no-holds-barred commentary, Soap Hub is the daytime spot for the 21st century.
Soap Hub Awards
Soap fans have always been vocal about their favorite stars, storylines, feuds, newcomers, and series. With that in mind, Soap Hub created The Soap Hub Awards, which allows devotees of daytime drama to voice their opinions and also cast their votes for their best-loved actors and shows.
The Inaugural Soap Hub Awards launched in the summer of 2020. Soap Hub created multiple categories and fans voted for their favorites over a few weeks period. SH editors handed out awards on YouTube in 2020 for the inaugural ceremony.
In 2021, Soap Hub and The Talk partnered to bring the handing out of statues to broadcast television. Winners went to the studio and accepted the honors on-air during a live presentation with The Talk hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell, and Sheryl Underwood.
“Bringing the Soap Hub Awards to The Talk feels like a great way to honor the daytime community and its loyal viewers. We’re excited for this partnership and to celebrate this year’s favorite soap opera performances chosen by the fans,” said Heather Gray and Kristin Matthews, executive producers, ‘The Talk.’
Diane Brounstein, Editor-In-Chief
Diane Brounstein is a seasoned writer/editor/researcher with decades of experience in the soap opera industry. She started her career as an intern on three soaps — Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, and General Hospital, often working in the casting offices.
Later, she worked as a senior editor at Soap Opera Magazine and was a managing editor at Sony’s SoapCity Website. She also worked as a researcher on 50 Years of Soaps: An All-Star Celebration for CBS, while spending 10 years working in the research and production end on the Daytime Emmy Awards for Dick Clark Productions, and on Soapography for SoapNet, where she was also promoted to an associate producer.
After spending time working on websites for CBS local news sites in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, she moved over to project management for a digital marketing agency. She joined the staff of Soap Hub back in 2016 and spends her days watching soaps with the rest of us.
While watching, Diane writes, edits, creates images, interviews your favorite stars, attends soap events for the latest news, and offers insightful commentaries on the goings-on throughout the daytime world. Catch Diane on Twitter!
Ashley Toering, Audience Development Manager
Ashley Toering has always held a special place in her heart for the soap genre as she grew up watching them with her grandmother, and her parents actually named her after Ashley Abbott on The Young and the Restless. After joining the Soap Hub team her love of daytime dramas and their dynamic characters has only grown.
Ashley graduated with her communication and advertising degree and began working in the digital media space, with a focus on social media and email. Ashley’s favorite thing about working with Soap Hub is the fans and their passion and love for soap operas. Catch Ashley on Instagram and Facebook or send her a message at ashley@soaphub.com
Rachel Dillin, Managing Editor
Rachel Dillin is a writer, editor, and researcher with 10 years of experience writing about soaps and more than two decades of professional writing experience along with a degree in English writing. She started writing as a teenager and began watching soaps as a child with her grandmother and mother like many daytime fans.
She joined the staff of Soap Hub in 2016, writing about soaps and editing for several years, and returned in 2021. Rachel spends her days watching soaps while she writes and edits articles about your (and her) favorite storylines and stars. Catch Rachel on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Sherrie E. Smith, Senior Editor
Sherrie E. Smith is a Writer and Producer, with 31 years of experience working in the Entertainment Industry. Sherrie spent a decade at E! Entertainment Television working on three daily Talk Shows, Inside Word, Talk Soup, and Pure Soap, producing late-breaking news for E! News Daily.
She interviewed hundreds of celebrities, and covered Live Red Carpet Award Shows such as The Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, The Grammys, The Primetime Emmys, The Daytime Emmys, and Movie Premiere Specials and other Special Events with Joan and Melissa Rivers, Greg Kinnear, Steve Kmetko, Michael Castner, Tom O’Neil, Gina St. John, Jules Asner, Arthel Neville and countless more.
Sherrie followed up her stint at E! working at Sony Pictures Television, as a writer, producer, and casting associate for the #1 rated Soap Opera, The Young and the Restless, while producing, creating, and maintaining the award-winning Official websites for the show.
Ms. Smith comes to SoapHub with tons of Industry knowledge that covers everything from Set Design, Technical Production, Directing, Producing, Writing, Acting, Editing, Casting, and enough insider trivia to make you blush! Catch Sherrie on Facebook!
Michael Maloney, West Coast Editor
Michael Maloney is a veteran Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter. As Senior West Coast Editor of Soap Hub, he’s on top of the latest news, casting, behind-the-scenes changes, and trends in the world of daytime drama.
He can often be found on a red carpet talking to your favorite daytime stars. Michael wrote The Young and Restless Life of William J. Bell, the authorized biography of the late William J. Bell, creator of both The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.
He’s a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication and has been on the production staff of BB. Michael also served as a creative consultant on the Pop TV series Queens of Drama. Michael’s career in soaps began soon after college when he worked as a CBS page on the sets of Y&R and B&B. He has written for a variety of publications about television including TV Guide, TODAY.com, Variety, and The Boston Herald. Catch Michael on Instagram and Facebook!
Laura Granados, Editor
Laura Granados grew up watching Mexican telenovelas and studied communications. She started her career as an English teacher and parleyed into the entertainment industry when she began translating articles for a Mexican magazine.
She quickly gained a strong sense of the industry and focused on growing her connections. In 2018, Laura joined Soap Hub’s sister site, TelenovelaFan as a creative producer, and became a key player in defining the site, and curating content, using her connection to Telenovela stars and their agents.
She expanded her role and joined Soap Hub in 2020. Laura uses her vast knowledge of soaps, crossing two major industries, to help both sites stay ahead of the curve! Catch Laura on Instagram and Facebook!
Amber Sinclair, Editor
Amber Sinclair started watching soap operas before she was born. Like many daytime drama fans, she was grandmother/mothered into soaps by her Nana.
Together they’d watch soaps whenever they could. Amber grew up on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. At one point, she thought Eric Braeden (Victor Newman, Y&R) was her father.
Hilarious moments like those have kept her watching soap operas to this day. Needless to say, that passion grew into creating a massive social media group around her shows (20K members and counting), and a wonderful career as a writer and assistant editor for Soap Hub. Catch Amber on Instagram and Facebook!
Alina Adams, Contributing Writer
Alina Adams has been a contributing writer for Soap Hub since 2016 and comes to us via the world of mystery books, romance novels, soap history tomes, soap production, and just about any other type of entertaining and informational writing you can think of.
She writes up our daily polls, giving our readers a good chuckle along the way. Plus, you never want to miss her on-point daily The Young and the Restless spoilers and recaps. Catch Alina on Instagram and on Facebook!
Janet Di Lauro, Contributing Writer
Janet DiLauro joined the Soap Hub team in 2016 and comes to us from decades of work in soap opera journalism. A New York native, Janet has worked for the former Daytime TV magazine and its sister publications.
She also spent many years as West Coast Editor of Soap Opera Weekly magazine and has contributed to dozens of entertainment publications throughout the years.
Janet writes our weekly comings and goings articles, keeping our readers apprised of the latest casting changes. She also makes sure our weekly news wrap is ready for you every week and delivers on in-depth interviews with your favorite stars. Catch Janet on Facebook!
Keith Loria, Contributing Writer
Keith Loria joined the Soap Hub team in 2020, bringing with him more than 25 years of entertainment journalism experience and four decades of being a fan of soaps.
A graduate of the University of Miami, Keith spent three years at Soap Opera Digest in the ’90s, covering Sunset Beach, the “Where are they Now” column and handling news. He moved to Soap Opera Magazine, where he covered All My Children and One Life to Live for the publication. He also worked with the late Kristoff St. John on his Backstage Pass Daytime Emmy videos, handling red carpet duties and post-party interviews.
He has watched Days of our Lives on and off since he was 10 years old, enthralled by the Salem Strangler and the introduction of Stefano DiMera soon after. His favorite soap memory is drinking martinis with the late Joseph Mascolo at a soap opera event. Catch Keith on Instagram and Facebook!
Garren Waldo, Contributing Writer
Garren Waldo is Soap Hub’s very own Southern Fried Spitfire, and he’s an expert on all things serialized – from today’s delicious offerings all the way back to the genre’s glory days.
His mastery might have something to do with all those ancient VHS tapes stuffed full of sudsy goodness that belonged to his grandmother and mother – or it can be blamed on the fact that he’s never picked up a TV tie-in that he didn’t read.
Garren recaps each and every episode of Days of our Lives and General Hospital, spoils a plethora of upcoming plotlines, covers news – breaking and otherwise – and he’s always quick to offer his sometimes curt, but always heartfelt critique. He knows that it isn’t wrong to prefer the original Roman on Days of our Lives, he’ll argue up and down that The Doctors always had a leg up on General Hospital, and yes The Edge of Night is far and away the best daytime TV program ever offered.
Sandra Leaming, Community Manager
Sandra Leaming’s deep passion is soaps. As a teen, she always looked forward to watching her “stories” (as her mom called them) when school was out for the summer. Her mother always made sure she wasn’t disturbed when watching them.
Sandra’s years in customer service have given her the skills necessary to lead a team of Facebook moderators, manage relationships with the fans, and keep the groups running smoothly.
Sandra joined the Soap Hub team in 2021. It had always been a dream of hers to work for an online soap magazine. On a daily basis you can catch her searching social media for soap and entertainment news stories, moderating the Soap Hub Facebook groups, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful. Managing the Soap Hub Facebook Page, or over on the website helping to moderate our comments.
You can catch Sandra on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Contact Us
SoapHub.com 8605 Santa Monica Blvd PMB 30337 Los Angeles, CA 90069-4109 news@soaphub.com
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