Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy is an American film critic. He wrote for Variety for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined The Hollywood Reporter where he subsequently became chief film critic.

Was born on February 16, 1950 in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Daniel and Barbara McCarthy. His mother was a cellist and served as the president of the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. His father was a rancher and real-estate developer. McCarthy graduated from Stanford University in 1972. McCarthy married at age 43 to Sasha Alpert on July 4, 1993 on his family's ranch in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Sasha is a documentary film maker.

From 1974 to 1975, McCarthy worked for Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles as an assistant to Elaine May. He helped her edit Mikey and Nicky. He edited Kings of Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System with Charles Flynn which was published in 1975. It is a book that discusses the great filmmakers of B movies. From 1975 to 1977, McCarthy worked for New World Pictures in Los Angeles as the director of advertising and publicity. McCarthy was later the manager English-language editions of Le Film français in 1977. The next year, he got a job as a Hollywood editor for Film Comment.