Robyn Okrant

Robyn Okrant is a writer, director, performer, and yoga teacher. She has created, written and directed many original pieces: from traditional stage plays, to solo performances, to sketch comedy, to improvised full-length plays, and most recently, short films. She is the author of Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk, and the blog LivingOprah.com, which is read by an international audience and has been visited by over a half a million people.

Okrant has spoken at universities, libraries, fundraising events, and has appeared on major national media such as The Today Show, The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Joy Behar Show, Fox and Friends, CNBC’s special report, “The Oprah Effect,â€Â and NPR’s All Things Considered. She’s also been featured in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, USAToday.com, Salon.com, and The Huffington Post.

On January 1, 2008, Okrant, an average 35-year-old woman in Chicago, announced to her family and friends that she was embarking on a unique one-year mission: to live every aspect of her life as Oprah Winfrey directed. Why? Robyn recognized that of all the cultural influences on American women, Oprah’s is perhaps the single most prevalent one, and she wanted to put it to the test herself. From creating vision boards, practicing guided mediations, and participating in the Best Life Challenge; to learning how to live with cellulite, de-cluttering her home, and buying necessities such as leopard flats and a fire pit, Robyn followed every piece of advice offered by Winfrey through The Oprah Winfrey Show, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Oprah.com.

Okrant chronicled the ups and downs of her social experiment on a blog, and struck a chord with a diverse and passionate audience. Now in her book and her presentations, she reveals the results of her year following the big O, offering compelling and entertaining stories for both blog fans and new audiences alike.

Much more than just about how Okrant got in shape and stayed abreast of the latest celebrity news with Oprah, she shares a tale of self-discovery. Hilarious, poignant, frustrating and surprising, she offers an intimate look at the impact the project had on her marriage, her friendships, how she perceives herself, and how her self-awareness evolved over the course of the year. The result is a year in the life presentation which is both truly personal and also a telling reflection on the self-help industry and the powerful impact the media has on women today.

When asked about why she chose to write about Oprah, Okrant says, I believe Oprah to be the single most influential person in the media today especially when it comes to impacting women.

Okrant graduated from Bennington College in Vermont and holds an MFA in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her husband and their two cats