Nelson joined the magazine as a senior editor in 1997, editing the work of such writers as Andrew Corsello, Elizabeth Gilbert, Charles Bowden, and Michael Paterniti.
[18] In 2016, Nelson launched ‘The Closer with Keith Olbermann,’ a twice-weekly web series offering political commentary on the 2016 election and other timely news topics.
After garnering more than 75 million views[19] for ‘The Closer,’ Olbermann returned with a post-election series on GQ.com called ‘The Resistance’ where he continued the conversation about President Trump.
[21] In 2017, NBC optioned a sitcom based on GQ editor Dan Riley's feature, Inside the Church of Chili’s.
[23] In 2017, Nelson was tapped to host an episode of the PBS icon series, Speakeasy, in which he interviewed punk rock legend, Nick Lowe.