Chris Garcia has been the chief film critic at the Austin American-Statesman since 1998. His writing has won 10 national and state awards, including six for criticism. He has been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize in Distinguished Criticism.

He previously wrote about the arts at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, where he won a national award, and at The Dispatch in Gilroy, California, where he won two statewide awards.

Garcia earned a bachelor of journalism and history from San Francisco State University in 1991 and has contributed to several publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Maxim and USA Today's Weekend Magazine. He created, wrote and, for several years, taught the online course “Introduction to Film Noir” at BarnesandNoble.com.