Pj Perez


Pj Perez is an American editor, writer and musician, best known for his reports and commentary on Las Vegas culture in such publications as Rolling Stone. Perez was the founding managing editor of Las Vegas-based Racket Magazine.

Publishing

Perez made his first forays into publishing with self-published 'zines and poetry chapbooks in the early and mid-1990s while performing on the Las Vegas poetry circuit and singing in short-lived bands before beginning his freelance writing career with Las Vegas CityLife in 2000. After writing for a number of local and regional publications including Las Vegas Weekly and Las Vegas Mercury, Perez was recruited in late 2006 to launch a monthly lifestyle magazine called Racket. After Racket went on indefinite hiatus, Perez returned to freelance journalism, writing for publications such as Six Degrees and HRH magazines. He was previously the Las Vegas Fine Arts Examiner for Examiner.com.
In April 2009, Perez re-launched his comic book and pop culture website, Pop! Goes the Icon, as a boutique publishing label, and began writing and illustrating a weekly webcomic, The Utopian.

Music

In the late 1990s, Perez played guitar in Morgana Athena, a Las Vegas-based gothic rock band whose single "E.S.P." was featured on Dim View of the Future, a gothic rock compilation released by a subsidiary of Triple X Records. He previously played guitar in Las Vegas-based rock band As Yet Unbroken, and most recently, played bass guitar in Vegas-based indie rock band MOONBOOTS,

Education

Perez graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a dual bachelor's degree in journalism and sociology. While at UNLV, he temporarily served as editor in chief of The Rebel Yell, the campus' award-winning newspaper.

Filmmaking

Perez first ventured into filmmaking with the 2011 48 Hour Film Project short film Sugarhook. In August 2018, he posted a teaser trailer for Parkway of Broken Dreams, a documentary film about the cultural scene that developed near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the early 1990s.