Max Brooks

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Max Brooks

Max Brooks at Wizard World 2008.
Born Maximillian Michael Brooks
(1972-05-22) May 22, 1972
New York City
Occupation Author, writer, screenwriter, actor
Nationality United States
Genres Humor, Horror

Maximillian Michael "Max" Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American horror author and screenwriter. He is the son of comedy filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Brooks' writing focuses on zombie stories.[1] Brooks is also a television and voice-over actor.

Early life and education

Brooks was born in New York City, the son of actress Anne Bancroft and director, producer, writer, and actor Mel Brooks.[2] His father is Jewish and his mother's parents were both children of Italian immigrants who were brought up as Roman Catholics.

Brooks is dyslexic[3] and attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. He studied history at Pitzer College in Claremont, California but dropped out. He spent a semester at the University of the Virgin Islands.[3] He graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. in 1994.[4][5][6][7]

Max Brooks with father Mel Brooks in April 2010

Career

Writing

From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live.

Brooks is the author of The Zombie Survival Guide. The book described in depth the creation of and lives of zombies. The book was later followed up in 2009 by The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, a graphic novel depicting several of the events detailed in the book's latter section.

Brooks' book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which deals with the war between the human race and zombies, was released on September 12, 2006. Paramount Pictures acquired the movie rights with Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment producing the film. In the October 2006 issue of Fangoria Magazine, Brooks stated that he would not be writing the screenplay for the motion picture, as he felt he was not an accomplished enough screenwriter to "do it right" (J. Michael Straczynski wrote the first version of the screenplay).[8]

In 2013, Cemetery Dance published a new limited Edition of World War Z. Jeremy Caniglia created all new artwork for this special release to coincide with the film release.

Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment's zombie miniseries Raise the Dead released in 2007.[9]

The New Dead, a 2010 anthology of previously unpublished zombie stories edited by Christopher Golden, contains an additional World War Z story titled "Closure, LTD".

In 2010, Brooks wrote the IDW comic book mini-series G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds.[10]

In 2011, Brooks wrote the foreword for Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies, a 300-page fiction book written by Matt Mogk.

In 2013, Avatar Press released The Extinction Parade, a comic book series based on the 2011 short story created by Brooks.

Acting and voice-over work

Brooks has a number of other creative credits.[11] As an actor, he has been seen in Roseanne, To Be or Not to Be, Pacific Blue, and 7th Heaven.[11] He also has a career voicing animation; his voice has been featured in the animated shows Batman Beyond, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Justice League and All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series.[11] During the start of the 3rd season of Lost Tapes, he was cast as himself in the zombie episode, telling the audience about how zombies come to be. He also appeared on Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior, in which he represented the zombie team in the "Vampires vs Zombies" episode, as one of the Zombie experts along with Matt Mogk the Founder of the Zombie Research Society.[12] He also appeared on the Discovery Channel"s Sons of Guns in a zombie gun build off ("Civilian vs. Military").

Personal life

Brooks has been married to Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have one child, Henry Michael Brooks (born March 2005). They live in Venice, California.[4]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html
  2. ↑ Townsend, Allie. "Q&A: Zombie-Survival Expert Max Brooks," Time magazine (July 26, 2010).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html?pagewanted=2
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html?pagewanted=3
  5. ↑ "Pitzer College Alumnus Max Brooks '94 Authors New York Times Best Sellers," Pitzer College press release (January 19, 2011).
  6. ↑ "New York Times Bestseller and Alumnus Max Brooks '94 to Keynote 2011 Pitzer College Commencement," Pitzer College press release (April 21, 2011).
  7. ↑ "Keynote Speaker Max Brooks '94," Pitzer College website (June 2, 2011)
  8. ↑ Fangoria Magazine (Oct. 2006).
  9. ↑ "Dynamite webpage for ''Raise the Dead'' HC edition". Dynamiteentertainment.com. Retrieved 2013-06-26. 
  10. ↑ Manning, Shaun. "Brooks Wins 'Hearts and Minds'," Comic Book Resources (April 1, 2010).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Max Brooks entry, Internet Movie Database. Accessed May 11, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Deadliest Warrior Comic-Con 2011 Panel – Episode 300a". Spike. July 22, 2011

External links

Authority control
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