Image by Helen Jones Photography
I was born in Coventry in 1970 and grew up in South-East London. My first professional work, an article in Crash computer games magazine, was published in 1988 while I was still at Kidbrooke Comprehensive School.
I studied Film and English at the University of East Anglia, Filmmaking at Goldsmiths’ College, and Film and TV at the University of Westminster, then completed a PhD in Cultural Studies at Cardiff University in 1999. My doctoral thesis, a cultural history of Batman, was published in 2000.
In the 2000s I published multiple books on popular culture and its audiences, including Using the Force, Alice’s Adventures and The Blade Runner Experience. I began working at Kingston University in 2005 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. From 2011-2013 I was the weekly film and TV reviewer for the Times Higher Education magazine, and from 2013-2018 I was editor of the prestigious Cinema Journal.
In 2019 I branched into commercial non-fiction with Why Bowie Matters for HarperCollins, followed by The Truth About Lisa Jewell in 2022, published by Penguin.
In addition to books and scholarly articles, I’ve written journalism – for The Guardian, Newsweek, the BBC and elsewhere – and appeared regularly on TV and radio. My research has been featured across international media and translated into several languages.
I now live in Surrey with my family.
Contact: w.brooker@kingston.ac.uk
Agent: info@bcm-agency.com