Bios

Ellen Jovin

Creator, Grammar Table

Ellen is an internationally acclaimed grammar and language expert. Her book Rebel with a Clause, about the adventures of the Grammar Table, was published in July 2022 by HarperCollins and became a national bestseller. She has written three other books on writing and grammar: English At Work: Find and Fix Your Mistakes in Business English; Essential Grammar for Business: The Foundation of Good Writing; and Writing for Business: Professionalism, Integrity & Power, all published by Hachette in 2019.

Ellen has achieved fluency in six languages and has studied more than 25 in nine different writing systems. She was the lead organizer of the 2015 Polyglot Conference in New York City and has a large international social media following. She is a co-founder (with her husband, Brandt Johnson) of Syntaxis, a communication skills training and consulting firm whose clients include many multinational corporations. Earlier in her career, Ellen taught English as an adjunct lecturer at New York University and other colleges, and then spent several years as a full-time freelance writer.

Ellen has a B.A. in German studies from Harvard University and an M.A. in comparative literature from UCLA.

Brandt Johnson

Director of the upcoming Grammar Table film

Brandt is a co-founder (with Ellen) of Syntaxis, a New York-based communication skills training and consulting firm. A former investment banker and speechwriter, he has trained executives of major corporations around the world. Brandt is the author of the book Practical Presentation Skills: Authenticity, Focus & Strength (Hachette, 2019) and has written and performed in three plays (the New York Times praised his “sharp writing”). He has also acted Off-Broadway and in national network commercials.

Before the Grammar Table, Brandt was the writer, director, and star of Brad Advice, a comedy web series. The New York Daily News raved, “Brad Advice is a new web series worth getting tangled in... the writing is sharp and funny... Brad Advice knocks it out of the park.”

A lifelong athlete, Brandt played professional basketball in Europe and on tour against the Harlem Globetrotters.

He graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in mathematics and earned an M.B.A. in finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.