Tony Dokoupil is a senior writer for NBC News, where he contributes scripts and features to NBCNews.com, and reporting across NBC platforms, including Dateline, the Today Show and Nightly News.

He’s also the author of “The Last Pirate,” a book about his father and the pre-legal world of smuggled marijuana. The New York Times called it, “a probing, exuberant memoir” and People Magazine said the story “will fill you with hope.” You can find excerpts online from Slate and Esquire.

Over the years, his reporting has made The Daily Show (the moment of zen) and The Tonight Show (the opening monologue), and generated guest spots on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The Today Show and CBS Sunday Morning. His writing—which has recreated drug smuggling, hate crimes, suicides, and free sperm donations (not a euphemism)—has been curated by the good people at Longform.

HBO awarded a development grant to turn his story “The Devil in Deryl Dedmon” into a documentary film, and NPR's Fresh Air made his piece "The New Pot Barons" into an hour long program. His story “The Coffee Shop Baby” became a 30-minute segment on ABC’s 20/20, and his profile of the antiquities-hunter Forrest Fenn was the first from a national media outlet.

Previously, as a senior writer at Newsweek & The Daily Beast, he wrote numerous cover stories, including "The Suicide Epidemic," "iCrazy" and "Dustoff 73," which helped anchor the first annual Hero Summit in Washington, DC. His story “The Last Dive" and the original video became Newsweek's first animated cover.

Dokoupil was one of two staff writers in Newsweek's Periscope section, which was nominated for a 2008 National Magazine Award for best stand-alone department. Later he edited a weekly page of idea-driven news and the My Turn column.