Jeff Maysh

Last updated

Jeff Maysh
Born (1982-03-30) 30 March 1982 (age 43)
NationalityBritish-American
Occupations
  • Writer
  • author
  • journalist
Website www.jeffmaysh.com

Jeff Maysh (born 30 March 1982, Nassau, Bahamas) is a British-American writer, author and journalist based in Hollywood, California, United States.

Contents

Journalism

Maysh started his career at the British men's magazine Loaded . [1] He moved to America in 2010 to cover international crime, [1] for publications including The Atlantic magazine. [2]

As a correspondent for the BBC, Maysh became the first journalist to enter the notorious Korydallos prison, near Athens. [3] His profile of prisoner Vassilis Paleokostas, a Greek bank robber who escaped from the prison in a helicopter, twice, was published on the BBC News Magazine on 25 September 2014. [4] [5]

Maysh's story about Steve Davies, a mythical soccer fan who scored a goal for West Ham United, [6] was listed in the notable section of "Best American Sports Writing 2014", and voted number one in a poll of "greatest ever soccer stories". [7]

In May 2015, Paramount Pictures acquired the movie rights to Maysh's story "The Wedding Sting". According to a report in Variety , [8] bidding became "competitive" among Hollywood studios for the true account of a rural Michigan police department that trapped drug dealers with a fake wedding. The story was first published in The Atlantic magazinne. [9]

In 2016, Maysh won "Best Crime Reporting" and "Best Feature (over 1,000 words)" at the 58th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. [10] Both awards recognised his story in Playboy magazine about a Michigan farmer who ran a $4 million smuggling operation involving counterfeit Pez dispensers. [11] [12]

Maysh's 2016 book Handsome Devil is about Victor Lustig, [13] while the following year's The Spy With No Name is about Erwin van Haarlem, a Czechoslovak spy. [14]

In 2018, Maysh published an 8,900-word article about a major fraud involving the McDonald's Monopoly promotion on The Daily Beast. [15] This story of a former police officer who stole $20 million in cash and prizes became the subject of a bidding war in Hollywood. [16] The sale of the movie rights to Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Twentieth Century Fox for $1 million was reported by The Hollywood Reporter as the highest fee ever paid for a single magazine article. [17]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 "Talking About Writing: Jeff Maysh, author of 'Handsome Devil'". The Queue UK — medium.com. 12 March 2016. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  2. "Jeff Maysh". The Atlantic. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  3. Papapostolou, Anastasios (14 September 2014). "Exclusive: Hollywood Calls For Paleokostas?". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  4. "The Uncatchable". BBC News. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  5. "Readers spent 2.3 million minutes on The Uncatchable @BBCNewsMagazine". Twitter. 26 September 2014.
  6. Maysh, Jeff (5 September 2013). "The day Harry Redknapp brought a fan on to play for West Ham". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  7. "Readers' Poll: These Are Your Five Favorite Ever Soccer Articles". Longform.org . 2 October 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  8. Kroll, Justin (12 May 2015). "Paramount lands Atlantic Article on Flint Wedding Sting". Variety. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  9. Maysh, Jeff (12 May 2015). "The Wedding Sting". The Atlantic.
  10. "Winners: Southern California Journalism Awards 2015" (PDF). Los Angeles Press Club. 12 July 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  11. "The Pez Outlaw". Playboy. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  12. Marks, Ben (20 March 2015). "Quest for the Pez Holy Grail: International Smuggling Meets Father-Son Bonding". Collectors Weekly. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  13. Maysh, Jeff. "The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice". Smithsonian. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  14. Maysh, Jeff (4 January 2017). "The spy with no name". BBC News. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  15. Maysh, Jeff (29 July 2018). "How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions". Daily Beast. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  16. Lee, Chris (10 August 2018). "Behind Hollywood's A-List Bidding War for a McDonald's Monopoly Article". www.vulture.com. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  17. Abramovitch, Seth (3 August 2018). "Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Paid $1 Million for McDonald's Monopoly Scam Story". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 20 July 2019.