Jeremy Burge Last updated July 17, 2025 Founder of Emojipedia
Jeremy Burge
Born (1984-07-14 ) 14 July 1984 (age 41) Australia
Occupation Founder of Emojipedia Known for Entrepreneur, blogger
Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984) [ 1] is an Australian emoji historian, founder of Emojipedia , creator of World Emoji Day and widely regarded as an expert on emoji. [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
Business Insider listed Burge in the UK Tech 100 in 2016, [ 6] 2017 [ 7] and 2018 [ 8] referring to him as "The Emoji Maestro" [ 9] while other publications have used terms such as "Emoji King" [ 10] [ 11] or "Lord of Emojis". [ 12] [ 13] The New Yorker dubbed Burge "The Samuel Johnson of Emoji" in 2020. [ 14]
Emojipedia In July 2013, Burge started the emoji reference site Emojipedia , after wondering how long the doughnut emoji had been in existence, and not being able to find an answer on Google or Wikipedia . [ 14] The Sydney Morning Herald reported the site had 23 million page views per month in 2017. [ 15]
Burge was Chief Emoji Officer at Emojipedia [ 16] between 2016 and 2022, [ 17] [ 18] [ 19] overseeing all editorial content on the site. [ 20] This title was described by The Telegraph in 2019 as "one of the most absurd job titles in tech". [ 21]
During his time at Emojipedia, Burge worked with professional athletes Tony Hawk and Sasha DiGiulian to improve the accuracy of Emojipedia's sample images for the skateboard [ 22] [ 23] [ 24] and rock climber [ 25] respectively. Jenken Magazine reported: "While they were on the phone one day, Hawk sent Burge a picture of his own board" [ 26] which was used as the basis of Emojipedia's revised skateboard design. [ 27]
In 2021, Emojipedia served over 500 million annual page views. Emojipedia was acquired by Zedge in August 2021 for an undisclosed amount. [ 28]
Unicode Currently representing Emojipedia on the Unicode Technical Committee , [ 29] Burge previously held a position as vice-chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee from 2017 to 2019. [ 30]
Described as a leading authority on emoji use, [ 31] Burge urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon in 2016, citing cross-platform confusion. [ 32] Emoji flags for England, Scotland, and Wales were added to the Unicode Standard in 2017 after a formal proposal [ 33] co-authored by Burge was approved. [ 34] Rather than individual code points, they are represented by tag sequences .
Speaking to Crikey in 2022, Burge spoke against superfluous emoji additions: "representation is important but I'm not sure we need another abacus or lab coat emoji". [ 35]
Writing Burge has been a regular news contributor to Emojipedia [ 36] and responsible for many of the initial emoji definitions on the reference website. [ 37] Additionally he has written for publications such Six Colors, [ 38] Medium , [ 39] [ 40] and The Internet Review. [ 41] In August 2023, Radio New Zealand reported that Burge was writing for Mobile Tech Journal. [ 42]
In 2019, Burge raised the issue of Facebook using user-submitted phone numbers for undocumented purposes, [ 43] [ 44] and in 2020, he identified TikTok accessing user clipboard data on every keystroke. [ 45]
References ↑ Price, Rob (17 January 2016). "Interview with Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia" . Business Insider . Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016 . ↑ Luckerson, Victor (25 March 2016). "The Inside Story of Why the World Is Being Blessed With a 'Colbert Emoji' " . Time . Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016 . ↑ Hamill, Jasper (21 September 2015). "Samsung risks racism storm as it introduces new non-diverse emoji that 'make everyone white' " . Daily Mirror . Archived from the original on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016 . ↑ Varga, Remy (2 September 2017). "Forbidden fruit lost in emoji web of textual desire" . www.theaustralian.com.au . The Australian. Retrieved 6 September 2017 . ↑ "Apple Unveils New Emoji Designs – Including T. Rex and a Zombie" . NPR.org . Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 13 April 2018 . ↑ "The 100 coolest people in UK tech" . Business Insider . Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017 . ↑ "The 100 coolest people in UK tech" . Business Insider . Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016 . ↑ Gosh, Shona (4 October 2018). "The 100 coolest people in UK tech" . Business Insider . Archived from the original on 9 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018 . ↑ Hamilton, Isobel (5 October 2018). "Emoji maestro Jeremy Burge (76th) and podcast don Myke Hurley (59th) were all smiles" . Markets Insider . Archived from the original on 9 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018 . ↑ "Emoji King Jeremy Burge & Picking the right VPN" . Radio National . 20 April 2017. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2018 . ↑ Harrison, Stephen (2 March 2020). "Emoji King Jeremy Burge Shares a Quote" . notesonquotes.com . Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2020 . ↑ Molins Renter, Albert (13 February 2016). "El señor de los emojis" . La Vanguardia . Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016 . ↑ Ky, Jenny (17 July 2020). "Most popular new emojis revealed for World Emoji Day" . Seven News . Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2020 . 1 2 3 4 Mirani, Leo (17 August 2020). "The Samuel Johnson of Emoji" . The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2020 . ↑ Olding, Rachel (2 December 2017). "How Jeremy Burge turned his curiosity with emojis into a six-figure salary" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017 . ↑ Tompkins, Michelle. "Jeremy Burge, Chief Emoji Officer at Emojipedia addresses bagel emoji issue" . Stars and Celebs . Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2018 . ↑ Eggert, Nalina (12 December 2016). "London firm seeks emoji translator" . BBC News . Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018 . ↑ "El verdadero significado de algunos de los "emojis" más populares" . BBC Mundo . 15 April 2016. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016 . ↑ "Keith Broni is Emojipedia's New Editor in Chief" . Emojipedia . 5 January 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022 . ↑ Dawn, Randee. "After social media uproar, Apple fixes bagel emoji – see the realistic new design" . Today . Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018 . ↑ Boland, Hannah (3 May 2019). "From time ninja to security princess: 10 of the most absurd job titles in tech" . The Telegraph . ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 3 December 2024 . ↑ Feldman, Brian. "Tony Hawk Finally Got a Skateboard Emoji. Now He Just Has to Fix It" . New York Magazine . Archived from the original on 29 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ Hawk, Tony. "I sent Jeremy Burge & Joshua Jones a photo of my actual board, so I'll take the blame if the wheels look big..." Twitter . Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ "Tony Hawk Ramping Up Lame Skateboard Emoji" . The Blast . 8 February 2018. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ "Sasha DiGiulian Helps Make Person Climbing Emoji" . Gripped Magazine . 30 March 2017. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ Dobija-Nootens, Nic (7 November 2018). "Where did the skateboard emoji come from?" . Jenkem Magazine . Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ Feldman, Brian. "The Skateboard Emoji Has Been Fixed With Help From Tony Hawk" . New York Magazine . Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018 . ↑ Price, Rob. "Emojipedia, the internet's encyclopedia for emojis, just got acquired by phone software company Zedge" . Business Insider . Retrieved 7 May 2022 . ↑ Segarra, Marielle (23 September 2021). "New emoji are about to drop, but where do they come from?" . Marketplace . Retrieved 24 September 2021 . ↑ "TNW Answers Jeremy Burge" . The Next Web . Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ "Forget about the egg plant: this is the new most sexually suggestive new emoji" . News.com.au . 4 August 2016. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017 . ↑ Baraniuk, Chris (5 August 2016). "Apple urged to rethink gun emoji change" . BBC . London. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2018 . ↑ Williams, Owen (19 January 2017). "Flags for Nations of the United Kingdom" (PDF) . Unicode . Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2018 . ↑ Titcomb, James (27 January 2017). "Emoji for England, Scotland and Wales flags to be released this year" . Telegraph . Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2018 . ↑ Wilson, Cam (22 March 2022). "WebCam: I met with Australia's Emoji King. Heavy lies the crown" . Crikey . Retrieved 22 August 2022 . ↑ "Author: Jeremy Burge" . Emojipedia . Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018 . ↑ Kelly, Jess. "Emojipedia: The definition and story of every emoji" . Newstalk . Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018 . ↑ Burge, Jeremy (20 August 2015). "Dreams of emoji yet to come" . Six Colors . Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018 . ↑ Burge, Jeremy. "New Emojis Are Here. We're Not Ready" . Medium (The New New ed.). Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018 . ↑ Burge, Jeremy (30 May 2019). "When Ignoring a Text Is the Polite Thing to Do" . Medium . Archived from the original on 19 June 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ "A running list of our Kickstarter contributors and their topics" . Medium . 28 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 July 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2017 . ↑ "Emojis expert tells all: Characters and their alternative meanings" . RNZ . 5 August 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023 . ↑ Cook, James (4 March 2019). "Facebook mobile security loophole lets anyone look up your profile" . The Telegraph . ISSN 0307-1235 . Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020 . ↑ "Facebook won't let you opt out of its phone number 'look up' setting" . TechCrunch . 4 March 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020 . ↑ Lyons, Kim (26 June 2020). "TikTok says it will stop accessing clipboard content on iOS devices" . The Verge . Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2020 . ↑ "The 39 most creative people in UK tech" . Business Insider . Archived from the original on 6 April 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2018 . ↑ "My Word: Emojis, signs and mixed messages" . The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com . 7 February 2020. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ Wolber, Andy. "How to use emoji in G Suite apps" . TechRepublic . Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018 . ↑ "You'll love this new podcast by Jeremy Burge" . Twitter . 26 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016 . ↑ "Emoji Wrap Podcast Starts Today" . Emojipedia . 24 August 2016. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2018 . ↑ "It's New Emoji Week for iOS" . Emojipedia . 3 November 2017. Archived from the original on 28 October 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018 . ↑ Snell, Jason. "Jason on the Emoji Wrap podcast 👋🏻" . Six Colors . Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018 . ↑ "7: It's An...imoji world and we're just living in it 🦄 with Christina Warren | Emoji Wrap – The Emoji Podcast from Emojipedia" . Emoji Wrap – The Emoji Podcast from Emojipedia . Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018 . ↑ Parkinson, Hannah Jane (25 April 2018). "Google puts gun emoji back in holster with switch to water pistol" . the Guardian . Archived from the original on 2 February 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2018 . ↑ FM, Relay. "Jeremy Burge" . Relay FM . ↑ "Jeremy Burge on The Incomparable" . The Incomparable . ↑ Clunden, Mark (17 February 2017). "These are the 10 emojis that Londoners use the most" . Evening Standard . Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017 . ↑ "Van hoofddoek tot huidskleur: emoji als spiegel van de samenleving" . RTL Nieuws . Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017 . ↑ "LMT Smart Future 2017, tehnoloģijas un inovācijas" . Straume . Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017 . ↑ "Design Matters" . www.facebook.com . Retrieved 7 June 2017 . ↑ Limited, Úll Conferences. "Úll 2017" . Úll . Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017 . ↑ Long, Edouard (10 October 2018). "Emoji Expert Jeremy Burge Talks to the Computer Science Society | Eton College" . Eton College . Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018 . ↑ "Eye Magazine | Blog | Characters in search of an emoji" . www.eyemagazine.com . Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017 . ↑ Change Catalyst (14 December 2017), Tech Inclusion London , retrieved 22 December 2017 ↑ "Communicating in a Post-Verbal World" . Design Museum . Fabrique & Q42. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017 . {{cite web }}
: CS1 maint: others (link ) ↑ "World Emoji Day: A Celebration" . The British Library . Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ UCL Technology Society. "Emojis (with Jeremy Burge)" . www.facebook.com . Retrieved 18 October 2018 . ↑ Klopp, Wilhelm (2 January 2017). "TechSoc 2016" . Wilhelm Klopp . Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018 . ↑ Levin, Sam (10 May 2016). "Google proposes new set of female emojis to promote equality" . The Guardian . Archived from the original on 12 May 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016 . ↑ O'Neill Deighan, Emma (17 July 2015). "It's World Emoji Day, how will you celebrate?" . Belfast Live . Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2016 . ↑ Varn, Kathryn (17 July 2015). "Letting Our Emojis Get in the Way" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2015 . ↑ Varn, Kathryn (25 April 2016). "The emoji inspired by a work of art" . Universo Online . Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2016 . ↑ Kokalitcheva, Kia (6 November 2017). "The decision-making behind emoji" . Axios . Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017 . ↑ "Emojipedia founder talks the past, present and future of emoji" . Engadget . 17 July 2017. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2017 . ↑ "Jeremy Burge Chats About "The Emoji Movie" " . BUILD Series NYC . Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017 . ↑ Hern, Alex (17 July 2017). "Apple marks World Emoji Day with beards, headscarves and breastfeeding" . The Guardian . ISSN 0261-3077 . Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2017 . ↑ BWW News Desk. "Winners of World Emoji Awards to be Announced on World Emoji Day" . Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2017 . ↑ WWD, Lisa Lockwood | (18 July 2017). "Saks Fifth Avenue celebrates World Emoji Day" . Los Angeles Times . ISSN 0458-3035 . Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017 . ↑ "SVP Regional Director of Stores for Saks Fifth Avenue John Antonini and founder of Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge attend the Saks Celebrates World Emoji Day event at Saks Fifth Avenue" . Getty Images . Retrieved 10 November 2017 . ↑ " "Emoji, il vero linguaggio globale" - La Stampa" . lastampa.it (in Italian). 13 July 2019. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ "Al Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino la mostra #FacceEmozioni 1500-2000: dalla fisiognomica alle emoji" . Ragguagliami (in Italian). 28 September 2019. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ "Emoji and dictionaries part one | Macmillan Dictionary Blog" . 10 February 2020. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ "#On This Day – The History of Writing – Histories of the Unexpected" . historiesoftheunexpected.com . Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020 . ↑ Quito, Anne (17 July 2022). "How the creator of World Emoji Day is celebrating the "holiday" " . Quartz . Retrieved 22 August 2022 . ↑ esposito, brad (8 April 2022). "Very Fine Day #57: Jeremy Burge" . Very Fine Day . Retrieved 7 May 2022 . ↑ Wells, Joshua (7 March 2018). "Kilmore's role in emoji revolution" . The North Central Review . Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021 . ↑ Olding, Rachel (30 November 2017). "How Jeremy Burge turned his curiosity with emojis into a six-figure salary" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021 . ↑ Beres, Damon (19 April 2019). "Here's How Emojipedia Founder Jeremy Burge Organizes His Home Screen" . Medium . Retrieved 21 February 2021 . ↑ "Tech guru Jeremy Burge reveals how he's bringing the canals to the attention of the younger generations" . Waterways World . Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021 . ↑ Mirani, Leo (15 August 2020). "The Samuel Johnson of Emoji" . The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2021 . ↑ "Viral TikTok star caught in town's power cut" . Oxford Mail . 15 July 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2025 . ↑ Thompson, Dillon (7 July 2020). "This TikToker turned his canal boat into an extravagant tiny house — and the internet is obsessed" . uk.news.yahoo.com . Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2021 . ↑ Cavernelis, Dennis. "Meet the master of emojis Jeremy Burge, the creator of Emojipedia who lives on a riverboat" . News24 . Retrieved 30 September 2021 . ↑ Swan, David (14 November 2024). "Who approves a Steaming Poo? The serious business of giving an emoji the thumbs-up" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 21 November 2024 . This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.