Sarah Bedell Smith (born May 27, 1948) is an American journalist and biographer. She has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair since 1996. Previously, she was a cultural news reporter for The New York Times and Time. She has written biographies of political, cultural, and business figures in the United States and members of the British royal family.[4]
Smith has written biographies of several notable persons, including television executives, socialites, politicians, and the British royal family.
As a result of her 2012 biography of Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, Smith served as playwright Peter Morgan's consultant on the London and New York productions of The Audience, his award-winning drama about Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers, starring Helen Mirren.[9] The book won the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, and the 2012 Goodreads Choice Award for best book in history and biography.[citation needed]