Maximillian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedy filmmaker

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) 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. He began ...

and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

stories. He is a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

Early life

Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City. He is the son of actress Anne Bancroft and actor, director, producer, and writer

. His father is Jewish, while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic. Brooks is

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

and recalled that during the time in which he was growing up: Brooks attended Crossroads School in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

. He studied at

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. One of the Claremont Colleges, the college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is k ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popu ...

, where he earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

in history. He also attended graduate school, studying film at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was cha ...

in Washington, D.C.

Career

Writing

From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''. In 2003, Brooks wrote his first book, ''

The Zombie Survival Guide ''The Zombie Survival Guide'' is the first book written by American author Max Brooks, published in 2003. It is a satirical survival manual about zombies, containing information about zombie physiology and behavior, defense strategies and tactic ...

'', a satirical survival manual about

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...

. 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 Zombie apocalypse is a genre of fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack huma ...

. Paramount Pictures acquired the movie rights, and

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...

's production company, Plan B Entertainment, produced 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 Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ...

wrote the first version of the screenplay). Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of

Dynamite Entertainment Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptations ...

's zombie miniseries ''Raise the Dead'', released in 2007. MaxMelBrooksApr10

In 2010, Brooks wrote the IDW comic book mini-series ''G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds''. In 2012, he 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. In 2014,

Broadway Books Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Random House, Inc., released its first list in Fall, 1996. Broadway was founded in 1995 as a unit of Bantam Doubleday Dell a unit of Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann acquired Rando ...

published '' The Harlem Hellfighters'', a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

which portrays a fictionalized account of the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

369th Infantry Regiment The 369th Infantry Regiment, originally formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment before being re-organized as the 369th upon federalization and commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters, was an infantry regiment of the Ne ...

's experiences in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, written by Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White.

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acq ...

has purchased the rights to create a film of the novel, with Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter producing on behalf of Overbrook Entertainment. He wrote the story for the 2016 film '' The Great Wall'', starring

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Ameri ...

. In 2016, Brooks was invited to MineCon and announced that he was working on a new novel based on ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before b ...

'', titled ''Minecraft: The Island'', and in 2021, he published the sequel, ''Minecraft: The Mountain''. In August 2019, Brooks' announced a new book, entitled '' Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre'', about the cryptid

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

. It was released on June 16, 2020.

Acting and voice-over work

Brooks has a number of other creative credits. As an actor, he has been seen in ''

Roseanne ''Roseanne'' is an American sitcom television series created by Matt Williams and Roseanne Barr which aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May 22, 2018. The show stars Barr as Rosea ...

'', ''

To Be or Not to Be To Be or Not to Be may refer to: * ''To be, or not to be'', the soliloquy from ''Hamlet''. Films and TV, theatre and books * ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942 film), directed by Ernst Lubitsch * ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1983 film), a remake produced ...

'', '' 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 ''Buzz Lightyear of Star Command'' is an American animated science fiction action-adventure comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and co-produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It serves as a spin-off of the ''Toy Sto ...

'', ''

Justice League The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived b ...

'', and '' All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series''. During the start of the 3rd season of ''

Lost Tapes ''Lost Tapes'' is an American television series that aired on Animal Planet. Produced by Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program presents fictional found footage depicting traumatic encounters with creatures cryptozoological, supernatural, myt ...

'', 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 ''Deadliest Warrior'' is an American television program in which information on historical or modern warriors and their weapons are used to determine which of them is the "deadliest" based upon tests performed during each episode. The show was c ...

'', 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.

Personal life

Brooks has been married to playwright Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have one son, Henry Michael Brooks (born March 2005), and live in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

. In October 2020, Brooks and his son appeared in a short video featuring Mel Brooks making his first political video at age 94 to endorse Joe Biden for president.

Filmography

Bibliography

Prose

* ''

'' (2003) * '' World War Z'' (2006) * ''Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales'' (2011) * ''Minecraft: The Island'' (2018) * ''

Devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

'' (2020) * ''Minecraft: The Mountain'' (March 2, 2021)

Comics

* '' The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks'' (2009) * ''G.I. Joe: Hearts and Minds'' (2010) * '' The Harlem Hellfighters'' (2014)Max Brooks discusses "The Harlem Hellfighters," World War I and his own life on the 7th Avenue Project radio show
/ref> * ''The Extinction Parade'' (2014) * ''A More Perfect Union'' (2016) * ''Germ Warfare: A Very Graphic History'' (2019)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Max 1972 births Living people 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American comics writers American humorists American male film actors American male television actors American male television writers American male voice actors American male writers American people of German-Jewish descent American writers of Italian descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American television writers American University alumni Crossroads School alumni Writers with dyslexia Actors with dyslexia Male actors from New York City Pitzer College alumni Primetime Emmy Award winners Screenwriters from California Screenwriters from New York (state)