Elliott Hester graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in speech communications. After one year as a media buyer with Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago, he escaped his cubicle to pursue a "low"-fashion modeling career. Elliott appeared in ads for Hart Shaftner & Marx, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and a long list of clothiers that prefer polyester to natural fibers. After a stint as a baggage handler, Elliott moved into the airplane cabin as a flight attendant, but his dream was always to become a writer.

Elliott's work has appeared in Playboy (Australia), National Geographic Traveler, Caribbean Travel & Life, Maxim, Men's Fitness, Glamour, Details and more than 35 newspapers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. A former Salon.com columnist, he currently writes "Out of the Blue," a syndicated travel column appearing monthly in the San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland Plain Dealer, New York Newsday and other daily newspapers. he has written two memoirs, Plane Insanity and Confessions of a Continental Drifter.

Elliott Hester is a native of Chicago, a resident of Miami Beach, a flight attendant for a major U.S. airline, and a hard-core Miami Heat basketball fan.

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