Michelle Swope was born in New Bern, N.C. and later grew up in Cary, NC. She is a lifelong cinefile and horror nerd, and when she was diagnosed with debilitating spinal disease and forced to give up a career in the medical field, she decided to use her knowledge of film to write about horror movies. She has been writing about genre film since 2016 and was a Staff Writer for Dread Central from 2018 until 2021. She writes film reviews, conducts interviews, moderates live panels, and has covered film festivals like SXSW, Chattanooga Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, and Fantastic Fest. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic and freelance film journalist, as well as a columnist at Bloody Disgusting, and a contributing writer at Daily Dead. She has been published in Scream Horror Magazine, as well as the online zine We Are Horror, and wrote an essay for the Blu-ray release of the film Dinner in America for Arrow Films Video. As a disabled female writer, she advocates for accessibility and inclusivity in film journalism. She now resides in Wilmington, NC.