About Brendan
Brendan Gillen is a writer living in Brooklyn. His fiction has appeared in The South Carolina Review, Longleaf Review, The Molotov Cocktail and elsewhere. He recently completed his MFA at the City College of New York and is at work on his first novel.
As a writer/creative director at Boomshot, Brendan has developed content for Condé Nast, ESPN, BBC, the U.S. Open, Resy and Anheuser Busch. Before joining Boomshot, he developed his creative and storytelling capabilities at ESPN, producing original content for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the NBA on ESPN, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, Grantland, Monday Night Football, and others.
His work has received attention in the New York Times, Mashable, the Washington Post, USA Today’s “For the Win,” SportsIllustrated.com, the Huffington Post and People.com, among others. He earned a Sports Emmy for his work on the campaign for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on ESPN.
Awards & Recognition
Sports Emmy Awards 2015 — Outstanding Promotional Announcement
New York Times — "Voice of Soccer Calls the Action Well Off the Field"
Mashable — "ESPN Makes Sport of Your Dating Woes"
Washington Post — "The best World Cup commercial..."
USA Today's "For the Win" — "The only World Cup commercial you need to see"
SportsIllustrated.com — "First date narrator extraordinaire"
Sporting News — "Steph Curry battles Ayesha Curry in 'Kitchen Warriors'"
CBS Sports — "Stephen Curry and family star in 'Kitchen Warriors'"
Experience
Boomshot New York
Writer/Creative Director (2016 - Present)
ESPN New York
Associate Director (2015 - 2016)
Manager (2014 - 2015)
Associate Manager (2012 - 2014)
Coordinator (2010 - 2012)
Sacks & Co. New York
Publicist (2008 - 2010)
Associate Publicist (2006 - 2008)
Education
City College of New York
MFA in Fiction
2016 - 2019
University of Virginia
B.S. in Commerce with Distinction; Marketing
2002 - 2006