Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is a reporter with NPR Music. She covers topics ranging from breaking news to cultural trends and artists she’s listening to. Recently, she spent months closely covering the criminal trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, reporting from a lower Manhattan courtroom on a daily basis.

In her stories, she likes to explore how music and culture intersect with power, politics and identity. She’s profiled filmmakers, writers and comedians including Lila Avilés, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Angelo Colina. She’s also interviewed musicians ranging from Young Miko to Jesse Welles and Susana Baca.

Her work can be heard across NPR’s radio programs and on podcasts like Up First, Alt.Latino, Pop Culture Happy Hour and It’s Been A Minute. She’s also pitched and produced several Tiny Desk concerts.Gomez Sarmiento got her start in public radio as a Kroc Fellow in 2019. She’s part of the NPR teams that won a 2023 Edward R. Murrow Award for the ongoing coverage of the fall of Roe v. Wade and a 2024 New York Press Club Award for a story about haptic suits transforming the live music experience.

Before coming to NPR, she was a freelance writer for publications including Teen Vogue, Remezcla, Noisey and She Shreds Magazine. Gomez Sarmiento is originally from Venezuela; she now lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Ricky Ricardo.

Sarmiento briefed National Press Foundation fellows in December 2025: Music Journalism is ‘About Race, Class, Politics, Identity and Labor.’