Best-selling Author and Jewish Activist
Samantha Ettus is a bestselling author, motivational speaker, media personality, and one of today’s most visible Jewish activists. Across two decades in the public eye, she has built a career around helping people live better, lead better, and now, speak up. In the wake of October 7th, Sam refocused her entire platform to combat antisemitism and mobilize the Jewish community. As she puts it, she went from covering work and life issues to covering life and death issues.
Sam has become a trusted source of accurate reporting in a sea of disinformation. Hundreds of thousands rely on her daily updates across her social media channels and her bestselling Substack, The Jewsletter. In 2024, Sam founded the New Voices Campaign to galvanize celebrities to publicly oppose antisemitism. Sam is an Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary October 8 and a contributor to the bestselling anthology, On Being Jewish Now. In 2025, she was named an ADL “Hero Against Hate.”
Sam is the author of five non-fiction books in the self-improvement category. She spent eight years as a Forbes contributor, wrote the syndicated column “Celebrity Assets” for Scripps Howard News Service, hosted a nationally syndicated weekly call-in radio show, and created and hosted 75 episodes of Obsessed TV with Gary Vaynerchuk, interviewing guests from Bethenny Frankel to Al Roker. She co-hosted iHeart’s leading women-in-business podcast, What’s Her Story with Sam & Amy, with entrepreneur Amy Nelson.
A two-time TEDx speaker, Sam has appeared on hundreds of stages across America, from Fortune 500 companies and national conferences to Jewish Federations and universities. She has been featured on the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, NBC News, CNN, Fox & Friends, Dr. Phil, and The Doctors, and has been profiled and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and Fortune. In 2021, Entrepreneur Magazine named her to its 100 Powerful Women list.
Sam earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where she played varsity tennis, and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She launched her first company, a personal branding firm, immediately after graduating in 2001. Sam has been politically active since her twenties and co-founded a PAC to help women running for national office. She was selected as a member of the 39th World Zionist Congress. A New York City native, Sam now lives in Los Angeles and is a proud mother of three.
