Andrew Fiouzi
Associate creative director / writer / storyteller

AndrewFiouzi.

From roadside motels to tech newsrooms to the frontier of AI.

“I knew every raindrop by its name.”— Denis Johnson
Explore the work ↓
A little context / 01

I started out asking questions for a living. Now I use the answers to build brands, shape voices, and make ideas people want to spend time with.

Selected
work.

Creative direction & storytelling / 01—03
01 /

Giving Gemini a voice.

I helped build Google Gemini’s social presence from scratch, one surprisingly useful, occasionally weird idea at a time. As the channels grew, I developed personas and user profiles to explore how different people might use Gemini, grounding the creative in experiences audiences would recognize.

How I approach it / 01A new feature is a starting point. I look for the moment it might slip into someone’s life, then build an idea around it.
2M+ followers across Gemini social channels
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I lead creative strategy, creator concepts, and scripts for new products and capabilities. I start with distinct audience personas: who might use the technology, what they need, and what would make an idea resonate with them.

I also develop prompting methods and creative playbooks, and lead training to help teams experiment with generative AI.

Google Gemini at Monks
Creative direction
Social & creator strategy
2024—Present
02 /

Leading the newsroom at dot.LA.

At dot.LA, I directed coverage of the collision of technology, entertainment, and Los Angeles.

How I approach it / 02In a newsroom covering technology and entertainment, I watched for the small shifts that hinted at a bigger story.
2.5M monthly unique visitors, up from 250K in three months
A day with the artists behind deepfake Tom Cruise ↗A day with the team behind Metaphysic took me into the uncanny world of synthetic media.
Can an algorithm bring back serendipity? ↗Over dinner and a night out, I met the founders using AI to bring strangers together in real life.
The artists imagining an AI-powered Hollywood ↗From Pinocchio to independent filmmaking, I explored how artists were experimenting with AI.
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As managing editor, I oversaw editorial strategy, daily operations, writers, and contributors. Our newsroom covered the emerging generative AI conversation, including creative tools and the people reshaping filmmaking and media.

dot.LA
Editorial leadership
Audience growth
2022—2023
03 /

Stories from the edges.

I spent six years reporting on subcultures, technology, masculinity, and the stranger corners of contemporary life.

How I approach it / 03Go somewhere. Talk to people. Pay attention to the details that make a place unlike anywhere else.
750+ stories published at MEL Magazine
How the all-American motel became a last resort ↗A reporting trip through roadside motels introduced me to families for whom they were a last lifeline.
A day at the beach on a disappearing sea ↗In Bombay Beach, I met the people living alongside the shrinking Salton Sea.
An oral history of hard-shell tacos ↗With help from a food historian and others, I traced the Mexican roots of an American fast-food staple.
Explore the work

I documented families living in roadside motels during the 2019 housing crisis and wrote an award-winning profile of Bombay Beach, exploring ecological collapse and the unlikely cultural renaissance along the Salton Sea.

MEL Magazine
Features & reporting
2016—2022

About.

Portrait of Andrew Fiouzi

I started my career as a reporter, asking questions, following strange leads, and occasionally spending the night somewhere I didn't book in advance.

At MEL Magazine, that curiosity took me into roadside motels and the community around the Salton Sea. At dot.LA, it took me into a newsroom covering technology and the emerging world of AI.

Now, as an associate creative director, I help shape Google Gemini’s voice and develop ideas around the people who use it: what they care about, their hopes, and what might make them stop scrolling.