Who is Gregory Pardlo? All about Robbie Pardlo's Pulitzer Prize-winning brother in the wake of City High member's death 

Robbie Pardlo, the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated R&B group City High, passed away on July 17, 2025. He is survived by his brother Gregory Pardlo, who is a Pulitzer Prize winner and professor.

According to his official website, Gregory is the author of a poetry compilation titled Spectral Evidence. The work was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kingsley Tufts Prize.

Gregory won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2015 for his book Digest. Some of Gregory's other works include a memoir in essays called Air Traffic and the American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize winning book, Totem.

Born in Philadelphia, Gregory Pardlo grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. When he won the Pulitzer Prize, judges mentioned that his work brought readers "the news from 21st-century America", and that it was "rich with thought, ideas and histories public and private.” Additionally, the late Robbie Pardlo's brother was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.

Some of his other fellowships include from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library's Cullman Center. While Robbie Pardlo's brother stays in New York, he also visits the United Arab Emirates as he is the Head of Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi.

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Robbie Pardlo's brother Gregory was vocal about his brother's addiction issues: Details explored amid news of the City High member's demise

While Gregory Pardlo has won accolades for multiple projects, he has also been vocal about his brother Robbie's struggle with addiction. According to America The Jesuit Review dated May 2019, in his book Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America, Gregory reflected on his own journey toward recovery through Robbie Pardlo's addiction.

“In studying my family’s destruction. I am studying my own,” he wrote.

In January 2010, A&E's show Intervention staged an on-camera intervention with Robbie and his family, given that he had been struggling with alcoholism since his City High days.

During an interview with NPR in 2018, Gregory Pardlo addressed his brother's televised intervention. Describing the show's format, Gregory mentioned that A&E's Intervention followed an individual who suffered from alcoholism or addiction of some sort. He also mentioned that the other side of the show featured a person's family wanting to rescue their loved one.

Talking about how both sides of the show came into being, with concerns of his brother's well-being, Gregory Pardlo said:

"In Robbie's case, there was a very expensive high-class rehab waiting for him in Malibu. And I think, you know, my mother really wanted to rescue him. That was genuine. But at the same time, that - the move to do it in such a public way I suspected had something to do with her wanting to rescue my brother's public life - his career as well.”

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A representative of Robbie Pardlo confirmed the news of his demise to TMZ. The City High member passed away on July 17, 2025, in Willingboro, New Jersey, surrounded by his family and loved ones.

While the exact cause of Robbie's demise has not been revealed yet, sources close to the Pardlo family shared that he passed away due to complications of heart failure due for which he was hospitalized on July 15, 2025.

In addition to his brother Gregory, the late City High member is survived by his wife, Anika Pardlo, mother Marion Pardlo, and children Lyric and Chord Andrew Pardlo.

Edited by Arunava Dutta