Hi! I’m Mel!

Originally from Red Deer, Alberta, Mel Woods is an award-winning journalist, writer and digital producer based in Vancouver, B.C.

Currently a senior editor at Xtra Magazine, Mel previously worked as a viral/trending writer editor for HuffPost Canada. Their written and multimedia work has also appeared in Canadian Geographic, The Walrus, The Tyee, The Narwhal, The Globe and Mail, Slate, and Vice.

Mel’s work has included everything from in-depth reported features on Alberta separatism to TikTok videos about Canadian federal politics to cultural analysis about LGBTQ2S+ representation in reality TV. They are a regular guest across podcasts, radio and TV.

Mel covered the 2019 federal election for HuffPost Canada winning gold at the 2021 Canadian Online Publishing Awards for news coverage. They also won gold at the 2021 Canadian Radio, Television and Digital News Awards for their opinion writing. They were a finalist for the 2025 Emerging Excellence Award at the Digital Publish Awards. In 2026, they were nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for Best Online/Print Journalism Article for their coverage of anti-trans media bias in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.

Mel holds a Master of Journalism from the University of British Columbia, where they won the Hal Straight Gold Medal in 2019 as the program’s most outstanding graduate. They wrote their Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded Master’s thesis on freedom of speech and student newspapers in Canada. They travelled to China in 2018 to report an investigative project on the global fishmeal industry in collaboration with NBC News. That project won the 2020 Digital Publishing Award for Best Digital Editorial Package and was nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award.

Mel is a proud alumnus of campus media, having previously hosted weekly radio programs on CiTR 101.9 FM in Vancouver, and CJSW 90.9 FM in Calgary. They also served as editor-in-chief of The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary’s independent student newspaper, from 2016-2017.

Mel holds a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary, where they were a Chancellor’s Club Scholar.

When not working, they enjoy hazy IPAs, playing Magic: the Gathering, and hanging out with their partner Jasmine and two persian cats, Hobgoblin and Goo Goo.