Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show and Nathan Barley. Brooker started his career as a cartoonist; he produced adverts for the second-hand video game retailer CeX before becoming a journalist for PC Zone. He has presented a number of television shows, mostly consisting of satirical and biting criticism of modern society and the media, such as Screenwipe, Gameswipe, Newswipe, Weekly Wipe, and 10 O'Clock Live. He also wrote the 2008 horror drama series Dead Set. He has written social criticism pieces for The Guardian and is one of four creative directors of the production company Zeppotron. Early life Charlie Brooker was born on 3 March 1971 in Reading, Berkshire. He grew up in a relaxed Quaker household in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire. His parents were fans of the television sitcom Bewitched, and named him Charlton after a character in one episode and his sister Samantha after the series' main character. As a teenager, he first worked as a writer and cartoonist for Oink!, a comic produced in the late 1980s. After attending Wallingford School, Brooker attended the Polytechnic of Central London (which became the University of Westminster during his final year there) to study for a BA in Media Studies. He says that he did not graduate because his dissertation was written on video games, which was not considered an acceptable topic. He has listed his comedic influences as Monty Python, The Young Ones, Blackadder, Chris Morris, and Vic Reeves. Brooker did some early work as a cartoonist, and worked in the video game department of Music and Video Exchange, a retailer in Notting Hill Gate, London. When one of the employees left to found the second-hand retailer CeX, Brooker worked in their first shop and produced cartoon advertisements. Career Print After some of Brooker's CeX cartoons were printed in the magazine PC Zone, he was invited to write for the magazine. His first published review was of the 1997 game Fallout. Brooker wrote for the magazine in the mid and late 1990s. Aside from games reviews, his output included the comic strip "Cybertwats" and a column titled "Sick Notes", where Brooker would insult anyone who wrote in to the magazine – and offered a