Draft:Katy Krassner

Katy Krassner is a radio personality, record company executive, and writer best known for her work with 1980s pop band Duran Duran. She has worked on behalf of Duran Duran in numerous capacities since the late 1990s.

Early life and education
Krassner grew up in the New York area.

She later attended the University of Rhode Island, majoring in communications. She graduated in 1990.

Career
Krassner began her career in the music industry as a publicist for Left Bank Management in the early 1990s. At the time, Left Bank was overseeing the careers of Meat Loaf, The Cranberries, Duran Duran, and John Mellencamp, among others. By 1995, Krassner was working with the band directly in a management capacity,

By 2002, Krassner was director of publicity for Hollywood Records. The following year, she was named as the head of publicity for Sanctuary Records. At Sanctuary, Krassner served as spokesperson for Guns N' Roses, Morrissey, and Widespread Panic,

Work with Duran Duran
After Duran Duran cut ties with Left Bank in 1998, Krassner was hired by the band directly as their fan liaison. With the launch of Duran Duran's official website in 1997, the band created a section of the site dedicated to answering questions posed by fans. Krassner, who had recently left her role as publicist at Left Bank Management, was asked to oversee the Q&A section and field the questions, which were ultimately passed on to the band and posted to the website.

In 2008, a selection of Krassner’s best responses to fans was compiled and published in a book titled ‘Would Someone Please Explain?: The Best of Ask Katy.” Her work compiling and responding to questions about Duran Duran has served as primary source material about the band's history.

She later served as the band’s social media manager.

In 2008, Krassner and Duran Duran founder and keyboardist Nick Rhodes began publishing their predictions for winners of the annual Academy Awards. An audio version of their selections is produced for air on the Duran Duran website.

As of 2012, she was overseeing the band’s presence on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.

In 2018, Krassner vigorously defended Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon when the singer was accused of sexual assault which allegedly took place during a 1995 record signing event at a California music store.

Radio work
Krassner is the co-host, with Simon Le Bon, of WHOOOSH, a radio program on SirusXM. The show airs weekly at 9pm Eastern time. The program was initially developed during the COVID-19 pandemic as a podcast for Spotify.

Personal life
During her years as director of publicity for Hollywood Records, Krassner amassed a substantial collection of roughly 100 plastic figurines of actors, singers, and celebrities. The first piece she acquired was a likeness of Macauley Culkin, which she purchased for 50 cents in 1997. The collection was valued at about $3,000 in 2002 and insured at that time.

Krassner is married to author Brian Hughes. She is the mother of two.

She has one sister, Robin.