Ian Pearson has worked as a writer, editor, and radio and television producer for the last 20 years. He was associate entertainment editor at Maclean's in the early 1980s, and ended the decade as articles editor of Toronto magazine at the Globe and Mail. After a flirtation with film as a development officer of the Ontario Film Development Corporation, he spent three seasons as books producer for CBC Radio's Morningside and later worked on CBC-TV's Gzowski in Conversation.

He has written for most major publications in Canada, including Saturday Night, the Globe and Mail, Destinations, Toronto Life, Toronto, Maclean's and Quest. He has been nominated five times for the National Magazine Award and won silver in 1993.