IN BRIEF
Greg Jenner FRHistS is a British public historian, author, and broadcaster with a particular interest in communicating history through humour. He is the host and creator of the chart-topping, award-winning comedy BBC podcast You’re Dead To Me (over 115 million downloads and plays), and the author of several funny history books for adults and children
From 2008-2019, Greg was the Historical Consultant to nine series of CBBC’s Emmy & multiple BAFTA award-winning TV comedy series Horrible Histories, being solely responsible for the factual accuracy of over 2,000 sketches and 150+ comedy songs.
Greg also was a key member of the team on the BAFTA-nominated film Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans. He also was the consultant to Corpse Talk, a funny YouTube Kids animated series based on Adam and Lisa Murphy’s comic books. It got over 1 million views in its first week and was nominated for Best Children’s Show at the Royal Television Society Awards 2023.
Greg’s books for adults are Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know (2021), which topped the Audible History charts and is being translated into 6 languages. Greg previously published the critically admired Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity, From Bronze Age To Silver Screen (2020), and the bestselling A Million Years In A Day: A Curious History of Ordinary Life, From Stone Age To Phone Age (2015), which was an audiobook number 1 bestseller and has been translated into 12 languages around the world.
Greg’s children’s books include You Are History, a colourful and funny illustrated book about the global history of 50 objects children use every day, and in 2024 he is launching a brand new non-fiction series called Totally Chaotic History co-written with experts. The first book, Ancient Egypt gets Unruly (co-written with Dr Campbell Price), was released in April and instantly became the number 1 bestselling book on Amazon in all categories. Totally Chaotic History: Roman Britain gets Rowdy (co-written with Dr Emma Southon) launched in October 2024. Book 3 in the series will be about the Stone Age (co-written with Dr Brenna Hassett), and book 4 will be about the Ancient Greeks (with Professor Michael Scott).
Greg’s previous audio hosting work includes presenting two series of BBC Radio 4’s Past Forward: A Century of Sound, two series of the BBC’s award-nominated children’s podcast Homeschool History, the Audible podcast series A Somewhat Complete History of Sitting Down, the Radio 4 science series Origin Of Stuff, and the Radio 4 Extra documentary Hilarious Histories: What’s So Funny About The Past?
Greg first graduated to TV appearances on BBC Two’s The Great History Quiz, and then as co-presenter on both series of Inside Versailles. In 2021, Greg appeared in two Channel 5 documentaries about the 19th century: Our Victorian Christmas & Victorian Britain On Film. In 2025, Greg was a guest judge on BBC cookery show The Great British Menu
Greg is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway, University of London, and also occasionally teaches at the University of York
PUBLIC HISTORIAN: RADIO & PODCASTS
In Autumn 2019, Greg’s new BBC podcast series ‘You’re Dead To Me‘ launched at number 1 in the Apple Podcast Charts. It’s an educational comedy podcast featuring top comedians and top historians discussing key historical subjects and biographies from global history, aimed at an audience who didn’t love history at school. It has since had 115 million downloads and plays, and won three podcast and radio awards.
In 2022, Greg presented BBC Radio 4’s Past Forward: A Century of Sound, a 20-part series of 15 minute programmes exploring randomly-chosen clips from 100 years of the BBC’s archives, and using them as a springboard to hold conversations with fascinating interviewees
His Audible podcast series A Somewhat Complete History of Sitting Down (about the surprisingly fascinating history of how we sit) launched to critical praise in 2021
In response to the Covid 19 pandemic, Greg and his podcast team also produced BBC Homeschool History, two series of short, funny, informative radio lessons for children. It launched on BBC Radio 4 in April 2020 and won the Silver Medal for Best Radio Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2021.
In the summer of 2019, Greg was the resident historian on BBC Radio 4’s The Origin of Stuff, a science and history programme about the evolution and design of everyday objects.
In 2019, Greg wrote and presented Hilarious Histories: What’s So Funny About The Past? It was a 3-hour long documentary for BBC Radio 4 Extra about how comedy writers have used the past for material. It features interviews with people such as Stephen Fry and lots of lovely archive clips.
In 2018, Greg was a guest on BBC Radio’s Great Lives (talking about Gene Kelly)
In June 2015 Greg guested on BBC Radio 4’s Museum of Curiosity, appearing on the panel with the veteran comedian Ken Dodd and the mathematician Dr Hannah Fry. This episode won Best Radio Talk Show at the European Rose D’Or Awards 2016. Greg has appeared several times on the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast, and Helen Zaltzman’s language podcast The Allusionist
Occasionally people ask Greg questions…
How Greg ended up working on Horrible Histories — Long Interview with British Comedy Guide
GREG’S INTERVIEW WITH THE ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY ABOUT HIS WORK AS A HISTORICAL CONSULTANT
Greg’s Top Tips For Becoming A Writer, for BBC History MAGAZINE
GREG IS INTERVIEWED BY HIS FORMER UNIVERSITY’S ALUMNI MAGAZINE