Jeremy Burge

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Jeremy Burge
Jeremy Burge.jpg
Jeremy Burge at SOAS, University of London, June 2018
Born (1984-07-14) 14 July 1984 (age 41)
Australia
OccupationFounder of Emojipedia
Known forEntrepreneur, 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]

Contents

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]

Podcasting

Burge hosted Emoji Wrap, a podcast [46] from Emojipedia [47] covering "global emoji news and trends" [48] between August 2016 and December 2020 [49] interviewing guests including Mark Davis, [50] Myke Hurley, [51] Jason Snell [52] and Christina Warren. [53] The Guardian notes that Google product manager Agustin Fonts was "hesitant about shifting to a water pistol" when discussing the Android gun emoji with Burge on the Emoji Wrap podcast. [54]

Between 2017 and 2023, Burge appeared frequently on podcasts from Relay FM [55] and The Incomparable. [56]

Public speaking

The Evening Standard reported that Burge "lectured on the history and social impact of emojis" at TEDxEastEnd at London's Hackney Empire in 2017. [57] In addition, Burge has spoken at conferences such as The Next Web in Amsterdam, [58] Smart Future in Riga, [59] Design Matters in Copenhagen [60] and Úll in Killarney. [61]

Institutions that have hosted Burge include Eton College, [62] Eye Magazine, [63] Google, [64] London Design Museum, [65] The British Library, [66] and University College London. [67] [68]

World Emoji Day

World Emoji Day is a "global celebration of emoji" created by Burge in 2014. [14] [69] [70] According to the New York Times , he created the day on "July 17 based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones". [71] [72] Burge told Axios in 2017 that "Tim Cook tweeted about [World Emoji Day] this year so I was kind of excited about that". [73]

In 2017 Burge discussed the origin of World Emoji Day and Emojipedia [74] at AOL BUILD, [75] attended the lighting of the Empire State Building "emoji yellow" [76] with The Emoji Movie voice cast Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph and Jake T. Austin, and announced the winners of the annual World Emoji Awards from the New York Stock Exchange. [14] [77]

Saks Fifth Avenue hosted a "Saks Celebrates World Emoji Day" red carpet event in 2017 [78] which was attended by Burge. [79] On World Emoji Day 2019, Burge attended the launch of an exhibition at the National Museum of Cinema [80] [81] and spoke alongside Unicode Consortium co-founder Mark Davis at The British Library. [82] [83]

Burge claimed to "relax and enjoy it [World Emoji Day] at least once" in 2022, after stepping down from Emojipedia. [84]

Personal life

Burge was born in Western Australia, [85] and educated at Assumption College, Kilmore [86] before graduating from Deakin University. [87] In 2019 [88] [89] Burge moved onto a 53 ft narrowboat named Dottie M [90] and gained popularity on TikTok with viral videos [91] navigating rivers and canals of the United Kingdom. [92] [93]

In 2024, Burge told the Sydney Morning Herald he was splitting his time living between the UK and Melbourne, Australia. [94]

Burge was caught in a power outage in Wallingford, UK, in 2025. [95]

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Varga, Remy (2 September 2017). "Forbidden fruit lost in emoji web of textual desire". www.theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  5. ↑ "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.
  6. ↑ "The 100 coolest people in UK tech". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "The 100 coolest people in UK tech". Business Insider . Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
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  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "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.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. 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.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ 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.
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  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ 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.
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  31. ↑ "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.
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  33. ↑ 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.
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  35. ↑ Wilson, Cam (22 March 2022). "WebCam: I met with Australia's Emoji King. Heavy lies the crown". Crikey. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
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  38. ↑ 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.
  39. ↑ 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.
  40. ↑ 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.
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  44. ↑ "Facebook won't let you opt out of its phone number 'look up' setting". TechCrunch. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
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  89. ↑ "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.
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  91. ↑ "Viral TikTok star caught in town's power cut". Oxford Mail. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
  92. ↑ 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.
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  94. ↑ 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.
  95. ↑ "Viral TikTok star caught in town's power cut". Oxford Mail. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
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