Max Brooks | |
|---|---|
 Brooks in 2019 | |
| Born | Maximillian Michael Brooks May 22, 1972 New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse | Michelle Kholos (m. 2003) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parents | |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Humor, horror |
Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) [1] is an American author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, New York. [2]
Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in Manhattan, New York City. He is the son of actress Anne Bancroft and actor, director, producer, and writer Mel Brooks. [3] His father is Jewish, while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic. [4] [5]
Brooks is dyslexic, [6] and recalled that during the time in which he was growing up:
...they didn't even call it a disability back then; it was just "laziness," "goofing off," "you're not trying hard enough." "You can do it but you don't want to do it" — that was a big one of my teachers. And my mother, one of the greatest, most successful actresses of her day, gave up her career, put her career on the shelf, to raise me, to be my educational advocate and to teach herself about dyslexia. ... She took, every year, all of my school books that I had to read to the Institute for the Blind and had them all read onto audio cassette so I could listen to my reading list. And if I hadn't been able to do that, I wouldn't have graduated high school. I can literally say that not only did my mother give me my life, she saved my life.
Brooks attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. He studied at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. He also attended graduate school, studying film at American University in Washington, D.C. [6]
From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live . [8]
In 2003, Brooks wrote his first book, The Zombie Survival Guide , a fictional survival manual about zombies. In 2006, Brooks wrote the follow-up World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War , a novel on the same subject, set in the ten years following a zombie apocalypse. Paramount Pictures acquired the rights for a film adaptation, and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment, produced the film. In the October 2006 issue of Fangoria , 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. [9]
Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment's zombie miniseries Raise the Dead, released in 2007. [10]
In 2010, Brooks wrote the IDW comic book mini-series G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds. [11]
In 2012, Brooks published Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales, featuring the story of that name from The New Dead , along with three other short stories set in the World War Z universe. [12]
In 2014, Broadway Books published The Harlem Hellfighters , a graphic novel which portrays a fictionalized account of the African American 369th Infantry Regiment's experiences in World War I, written by Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White. [13] Sony Pictures has purchased the rights to create a film of the novel, with Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter producing on behalf of Overbrook Entertainment. [14]
He wrote the story for the 2016 film The Great Wall , starring Matt Damon. [15]
In 2016, Brooks was invited to MineCon and announced that he was working on a new novel based on Minecraft , [16] titled Minecraft: The Island , and in 2021, he published the sequel, Minecraft: The Mountain. [17]
In August 2019, Brooks announced a new book, entitled Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre , about the cryptid Bigfoot. [18] It was released on June 16, 2020. [19]
Brooks has a number of other creative credits. As an actor, he has been seen in Roseanne , To Be or Not to Be , Pacific Blue , and 7th Heaven . 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 . During the start of the third 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 the 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, founder of the Zombie Research Society. [20]
Brooks has been married to playwright Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have one son and live in Venice, California. [3] In October 2020, Brooks and his father appeared in a short video endorsing Joe Biden's presidential campaign. [21]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | To Be or Not to Be | Rifka's Son | Film |
| 1992 | The Public Eye | Teen at Thompson Street | Film |
| Roseanne | Snarky Customer | Episode: "Terms of Estrangement" | |
| 1997 | Pacific Blue | Marty Rosen | Episode: "Avenging Angel" |
| 1999 | 7th Heaven | Waiter | Episode: "It Happened One Night" |
| Melrose Place | Messenger | Episode: "How Amanda Got Her Groove Back" | |
| The Wild Thornberrys | Lead Dog | Voice, episode: "Polar Opposites" [22] | |
| 2000 | Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles | Lt. Bernstein | Voice, episode: "Swarm" |
| Godzilla: The Series | Uncredited voice | Episode: "Underground Movement" | |
| Batman Beyond | Howard Groote, Drew | Voice, 6 episodes [22] | |
| Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | Tech, Ranger, Punk-Goon | Voice, 2 episodes [22] | |
| 2001 | Justice League | Howie | Voice, episode: "Secret Origins" [22] |
| 2004 | Seen | Short film | |
| 2010 | Satan Hates You | Reporter | Film |
| Lost Tapes | Himself | Episode: "Zombies" |
Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.
Resident Evil, known as Biohazard in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other mutated creatures. The franchise has expanded into other media, including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audiobooks, and merchandise. Resident Evil is the highest-grossing horror franchise.
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic novels. His work has been published in several formats and his Road to Perdition series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.
The Producers is a 1967 American satirical black comedy film. It was written and directed by Mel Brooks, and stars Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, and Kenneth Mars. The film is about a con artist theater producer and his accountant who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a stage musical designed to fail. To this end, they find a playscript celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and bring it to the stage. Because of this theme, The Producers was controversial from the start, and received mixed reviews. It became a cult film, and found a more positive critical reception later.
Carl Reiner was an American actor, author, comedian, director and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999.
Anne Bancroft was an American actress and director. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Cannes Film Festival Award. She is one of 24 thespians to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.
The 369th Infantry Regiment, originally formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment before it was re-organized as the 369th upon its federalization and commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters, was an infantry regiment of the New York Army National Guard during World War I and World War II. The regiment mainly consisted of African Americans, but it also included men from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guyana, Liberia, Portugal, Canada, the West Indies, as well as white American officers. With the 370th Infantry Regiment, it was known for being one of the first African-American regiments to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.
Patton Peter Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and We Bare Bears. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).
The Zombie Survival Guide is the first book written by American author Max Brooks, published in 2003. It is a fictional survival manual about zombies, containing information about zombie physiology and behavior, defense strategies and tactics, and includes case studies of possible zombie outbreaks throughout history. Despite its fictional subject matter, the book also includes practical information on disaster preparedness, generally.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel written by American author Max Brooks. The novel is broken into eight chapters: “Warnings”, “Blame”, “The Great Panic”, “Turning the Tide”, “Home Front USA”, “Around the World, and Above”, “Total War”, and “Good-Byes”, and features a collection of individual accounts told to and recorded by an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, following a devastating global conflict against a zombie plague. The personal accounts come from individuals from different walks of life and all over the world, including Antarctica and outer space. The "interviews" detail the experiences of the survivors of the crisis, as well as social, political, religious, economic, and environmental changes that have occurred as a result.
Bigfoot is an alleged human or ape-like cryptid in North America. Since the mid-20th century, Bigfoot has become increasingly relevant in popular culture and is the subject of film, television, advertising, music, literature and more.
Zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of human survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack humans is unknown, in others, a parasite or infection is the cause, framing events much like a plague. Some stories have every corpse zombify, regardless of the cause of death, whereas others require exposure to the infection, most commonly in the form of a bite.
World War Z is a 2013 American action horror film directed by Marc Forster, with a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, and Damon Lindelof, from a story by Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski, inspired by the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks. It stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who travels the world seeking a solution for a sudden zombie apocalypse, along with ensemble supporting cast including Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.
Zenescope Entertainment is a comic book and graphic novel publisher headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, United States, cofounded by Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco in 2005. Zenescope publishes full-color action, fantasy and horror titles.
The Harlem Hellfighters is a graphic novel written by author Max Brooks with illustrations done by Caanan White. It is a fictionalized account of the experiences of the largely African American 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Hell-fighters" by German soldiers, during the First World War.
The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology is an anthology of zombie short stories edited by Christopher Golden. The stories contained in it were written by authors including Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, and Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, author of Heart-Shaped Box writer of Locke & Key
SethBling is an American video game commentator and Twitch video game live streamer known for YouTube videos focused around the 1990 side-scrolling platform video game Super Mario World and the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. He created original and derivative video games, devices and phenomena in Minecraft, without using Minecraft mods. He created an interpreter for the programming language BASIC and an emulator for the 1977 home video game console Atari 2600 in Minecraft. In addition to Minecraft builds that run without mods, he created plugins for the game.
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre is a fiction book by American author Max Brooks set in the Pacific Northwest. It chronicles the story of a small, isolated community of technologically-dependent city dwellers who suddenly are cut off from the rest of the world after a volcanic eruption. In addition to lacking outdoor survival skills and resources, they find themselves under siege by a clan of Bigfoot. The book was optioned by Legendary Entertainment to become a film, around the same time the book began to be sold to the public in June 2020. It was also nominated for Locus Award's Best Horror Novel in 2021.
Minecraft is a media franchise developed from and centered around the video game of the same name. Primarily developed by Mojang Studios, the franchise consists of five video games, along with various books, merchandise, events, and an upcoming theatrical film. Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios in 2014, alongside the Minecraft franchise and its editions.
Minecraft: The Island is a young adult isekai novel by Max Brooks, published in July 2017 by Del Ray Books. It was followed by two direct sequels: Minecraft: The Mountain and Minecraft: The Village.
| Novels | |
|---|---|
| Film |
|
| Video games |
|
| Related | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
