Max Brooks
Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American writer and actor. He is the son of actors Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks' writing focuses on zombie stories.
Also recorded as Maximillian Michael Brooks
Max Brooks

Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1972
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- writer · screenwriter · actor · Lehrbeauftragter
- Fields
- speculative fiction
- Known for
- The Zombie Survival Guide · World War Z
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Documentary summary
Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American writer and actor. He is the son of actors Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks' writing focuses on zombie stories.
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Note VALÉORINE
Max Brooks (born 1972) is an actor, Lehrbeauftragter and screenwriter, among other activities, of American nationality.
The actor was educated at American University, Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences and Pitzer College, among others. Max Brooks worked for Atlantic Council and Modern War Institute and worked in California and Los Angeles. Activity centred on comic, creative and professional writing and horror literature.
Among the works are The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. The work spans speculative fiction. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 29 September 2026
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wikidata · Q28170 · wikipedia · Max Brooks
In this article
Early life
Early life
He was a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute in West Point, New York.
Maximillian Michael Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in Manhattan, New York City. He is the son of actors Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks. His father is Jewish, while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic. Brooks is dyslexic, and recalled that while 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.
Writing
Writing
From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live. 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. Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment's zombie miniseries Raise the Dead, released in 2007. In 2010, Brooks wrote the IDW comic book mini-series G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds. 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. 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. 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. He wrote the story for the 2016 film The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon. In 2017 Brooks published a novel based on Minecraft, 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. It was released on June 16, 2020. In December 2025, Brooks announced a new book was in the works, tentatively titled The First Hundred Hours: A Story of Alien Invasion.
Acting and voice-over work
Acting and voice-over work
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.
Personal life
Personal life
Brooks has been married to playwright Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have a son, and live in Venice, Los Angeles. In October 2020, Brooks and his father appeared in a short video endorsing Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
Prose
Prose
The Zombie Survival Guide (2003) World War Z (2006) Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales (2011) Minecraft: The Island (2017) Devolution (2020) Nominated for Locus Award's Best Horror Novel in 2021. Minecraft: The Mountain (2021) Minecraft: The Village (2023) Tiger Chair: A Short Story (2024)
Comics
Comics
The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (2009) G.I. Joe: Hearts and Minds (2010) The Harlem Hellfighters (2014) The Extinction Parade (2014) A More Perfect Union (2016) Germ Warfare: A Very Graphic History (2019)

Max Brooks at the Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America · Max Brooks Uploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe

Max Brooks at the Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America · Max Brooks Uploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2017
Minecraft - The Island - AUTOGRAPHED by Max Brooks (SIGNED EDITION) Available 7/18/17 (2017) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Shelley, Peter. Anne Bancroft: The Life and Work. McFarland & Company. 102. 2017. 978-1476662428.
- 2.Max Brooks. Modern War Institute. April 7, 2016.
- 3.Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Max Brooks Is Not Kidding About the Zombie Apocalypse. The New York Times. June 21, 2013.
- 4.Belth, Alex. Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview. The Daily Beast. February 16, 2014.
- 5.Gluck, Robert. The cinematic Zionism of Mel Brooks. The Jerusalem Post. August 12, 2012.
- 6.Glader, Sue. Max Brooks, Author. The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity.
- 7.Novelist Max Brooks On Doomsday, Dyslexia And Growing Up With Hollywood Parents. NPR. August 15, 2017.
- 8.Sackman, Jack. 10 People you didn't know were writers on SNL. goliath.com. February 24, 2016.
- 9.Kaye, Don. 'World War Z': The gore to end all gores. Fangoria Magazine. 257. 12. October 2006.
- 10.Raise the Dead series collected in hardcover, with foreword by Max Brooks. Comic Book Resources. August 10, 2007.
- 11.Manning, Shaun. Brooks wins Hearts and Minds. Comic Book Resources. April 1, 2010.
- 12.Max Brooks Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales review. Horror Novel Reviews. December 4, 2014.
- 13.Lo Wang, Hansi. The Harlem Hellfighters: Fighting racism in the trenches of WWI. NPR. April 1, 2014.
- 14.Ford, Rebecca. Sony nabs Max Brooks' WWI graphic novel The Harlem Hellfighters. The Hollywood Reporter. March 7, 2014.
- 15.Livingston, Michael. Medieval Matters: The Great Wall, white saviors, and lizard dogs from space. Tor.com. June 7, 2017.
- 16.Davies, Marsh. Max Brooks is writing a Minecraft novel! Oh yes!. Mojang. September 24, 2016.
- 17.Ackerman, Dan. CNET Book Club: Max Brooks on his new Minecraft novel, The Mountain. CNET. March 12, 2021.
- 18.Squires, John. World War Z writer Max Brooks returning with sasquatch massacre novel Devolution. Bloody Disgusting. August 29, 2019.
- 19.Brooks, Max. Devolution by Max Brooks. Penguin / Random House. 2020. 9781984826787.
- 20.Deadliest Warrior. 300a. 22 July 2011.
- 21.Lauren M. Johnson. The legendary Mel Brooks takes to social media to share his support of Joe Biden. CNN. October 21, 2020.
- 22.Behind The Voice Actors. Max Brooks (visual voices guide).
- 23.Townsend, Allie. Q&A: Zombie-Survival Expert Max Brooks. Time. July 26, 2010.
- 24.Locus Horror Award.
- 25.Max Brooks discusses "The Harlem Hellfighters," World War I and his own life on the 7th Avenue Project radio show
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q28170: Max BrooksWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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