Andrew Marra is a freelance journalist based in South America. Before moving south of the equator, he spent five years as a reporter at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla. At the Post, he covered education and crime before taking a job as a general-assignment reporter. He has covered five hurricanes, more than 75 murders, two sessions of the Florida Legislature, the fallout from U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s congressional scandal, and several deadly police shootings, train wrecks and plane crashes. He has written extensively about street gangs and gun violence and has fashioned detailed narratives about the people behind many of the bizarre and beautiful stories that define South Florida.

In 2005, Marra founded Behind The Yellow Tape, one of America’s first newspaper crime blogs. The Florida Press Club awarded him its top feature writing award in 2004. A year later, he took first place in the organization’s Excellence in Crime Reporting category. In 2000, he was elected to a one-year term on the Society of Professional Journalists’ national board of directors.

Marra graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Independent Florida Alligator, the nation’s largest independent student newspaper. As a student he interned in the Florida Times-Union’s Tallahassee bureau and as a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News. He has also worked as a janitor, snake feeder and Dunkin’ Donuts night manager.