Charley Villaquez

Charley Villaquez (b. 1972) works as a journalist and author, living between Seattle and Los Angeles, reporting for national magazines and as a features writer in newspapers and online blogs. Their specialty is in community covering culture, religion, and celebrity news. They became nationally known in 2000 during a cross-state concert tour where they were present for the final days of musician Franky Lott and was one of the last people to interview her. Their article on the tour and on Lott was the lead source for multiple news outlets, and granted launched them into more prominent guest writing avenues.

They were formerly a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Happenings college newspaper, and following the Lott story, joined Gathered Moss Rock Magazine. During their tenure as GM Rock in 2014, they wrote a retrospective on rock musicians The Last Boys, and on the passing on Requiem. This led to their interest in the Gilman as a whole, and they were featured in the Historical Record special on Lionel Gilman, the foundation, and briefly on Requiem themselves. Much of their interview portions were cut due to concern of litigation from the Gilman Legacy Foundation, which led to Villaquez penning their own version of events, including the portions excised from the interview, on their blog, Charley's Web. It is largely assumed that Villaquez is the leading contributor to the Requiem fanpage, although not the owner.

In 2017, they became primary editor of the Culture Features division of Gathered Moss.

They are a graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University.