About Neel

I’m a writer and audio producer based in Brooklyn and a staff writer for the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.

Before Nieman, I was a founding staff writer at the climate journalism startup Heatmap. I also worked as a reporter at Vox, a fellow at Audubon magazine, and a temporary assistant producer at Radiolab, where I helped produce The Other Latif, a series about one detainee’s journey to Guantanamo Bay. I’ve freelanced in both text and audio; among other things, I was a producer on the podcast Firebug, which inspired an upcoming Apple TV+ show, and the ESPN 30 for 30 series Heavy Medals.

I grew up in Bangalore and am a graduate of the Literary Reportage program at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, where I learned how to turn incoherent scribbles and jumbles of (digital) tape into compelling stories. I studied photojournalism before NYU, and still occasionally take on photo assignments for both my own and other writers’ stories. I love working in narrative nonfiction and going deep on a project; if you’re an editor and would like to work with me, please feel free to reach out.

I am represented by Isabel Mendía at the Cheney Agency. This website is in the midst of an update; in the meantime, you can contact me at neel_dhanesha [at] harvard [dot] edu.