Hey! My name is Kristina “Curly” Manente and I’m addicted to creating. Be it stories, characters, a soundscape, or a truly ridiculous listicle, going from nothing to a finished product is a genuine joy.

I’m a dreamer, always thinking of something new and exciting to sink my teeth into, making up exciting melodramatic stories of people I pass on the sidewalk, and thinking about the cute barista girl who has my latte order memorized.

Cherry blossoms are my favorite flower, even though they are delicate and fleeting, and I have an extreme fondness for foreign musicals. I could probably live off of tea, and I have the world’s cutest dog named Basil (he is named after three Basils: of Baker Street, Rathbone, and Hallward).

My love for radio and the audio world can be summed up by the fact I went to graduate school for it. I have an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths University. Nobody spends all that money on something they don’t truly love.

I’ve been producing and co-presenting a Sherlock Holmes based podcast since 2011 called The Baker Street Babes, which was nominated for a Shorty Award in 2014 for Best Podcast. I wanted to talk about Sherlock with other fan girls and after years of making my own radio shows on my boombox and blank tapes as a child, I figured out I had a soul for radio (and face, lbr).

Following my love of travel, I started The Nerdventurists, a travel blog which provides guides and tales from around the world with a nerdy twist. I’m an ardent traveler and have been to over 48 countries and have no plans to stop. I taught English in a small fishing city in Japan for a year, volunteered on an archaeological dig on an Iron Age site in Israel, drove 10,000 miles in a 1994 Corsa from London to Ulaanbataar for charity, and fell accidentally in love with K-pop in Seoul. It’s been a wild ride.

Can’t wait to see what comes next!

Contact

Want to get in touch? You can email me at  or link up via LinkedIn or Twitter. Media inquiries for The Baker Street Babes should be done through the BSB website.