Greg Who?!

Follow GREG on: BLUESKY, THREADS, Instagram, and FACEBOOK 

IN BRIEF

Greg Jenner FRHistS is a British public historian, author, and broadcaster with a particular interest in communicating history through humour.

He is best known as the host and creator of the chart-topping, award-winning BBC historical comedy podcast You’re Dead To Me (over 130 million downloads), as well as the author of several funny history books for adults and children. He also worked for 11 years on the smash-hit BBC TV series Horrible Histories.

In 2025, Greg was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of York’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) 

BBC HORRIBLE HISTORIES:

From 2008-2019, Greg was the Historical Consultant (and occasional sketch writer!) for nine series of CBBC’s Emmy & multiple BAFTA award-winning TV comedy series Horrible Histories, being solely responsible for the factual accuracy of 2,000 sketches and 150+ comedy songs. In 2024, the series was given a Special Award by BAFTA to acknowledge 15 years of excellence.

Greg also was a key member of the team on the BAFTA-nominated film Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans.

Sticking with funny kids’ shows, Greg also worked on Corpse Talk, a 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.

AUTHOR FOR ADULTS & TEENS

Greg began his writing career with the bestselling book A Million Years In A Day: A Curious History of Ordinary Life, From Stone Age To Phone Age (2015), which became an audiobook number 1 bestseller and has been translated into 12 languages around the world.

He followed this with Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity, From Bronze Age To Silver Screen (2020), which took 4 years of research to write, and was critically acclaimed.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Greg was unable to do public events, so instead asked the public to send him historical questions by email or social media. This led to  Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know (2021), a funny compilation of answers to excellent (and surprising) questions. The audiobook topped the Audible History charts and the text has been translated into 6 languages.

CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

Having started his children’s writing career on BBC Horrible Histories, Greg’s debut kids’ book was You Are History, a vibrantly illustrated and funny non-fiction book that explores the global history of 50 ordinary objects that children use every day. It was published by Walker Books and illustrated by Jenny Taylor. It launched as a bestseller and was a BBC ‘Blue Peter Book of the Month’ in 2024. 

In 2024, Greg launched a brand new paperback non-fiction series called Totally Chaotic History!, in which each book is co-written with an expert historian.

Greg and Dr Campbell Price at Manchester Museum

The first book, Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly! was co-written with Dr Campbell Price and launched as the number 1 bestselling book on Amazon. The follow up, Totally Chaotic History: Roman Britain Gets Rowdy (co-written with Dr Emma Southon) launched in October 2024. In July 2025, book 3 will be The Stone Age Runs Wild (co-written with Dr Brenna Hassett), and book 4 will be about the Ancient Greeks (with Professor Michael Scott).

RADIO AND PODCASTING:

As well as creating and hosting BBC You’re Dead To Me, Greg has also presented two series of BBC Radio 4’s Past Forward: A Century of Sound, which saw Greg delving at random into 100 years of the BBC’s audio archives to find amazing clips and interviews from the past, and find ways to thematically connect them to the modern day. 

He also presented and co-wrote two series of the BBC’s award-nominated and much-beloved children’s podcast Homeschool History, which served up funny, 15 minute long history lessons for kids aged 7-11, who were unable to attend school during the Covid pandemic.

Greg also presented and wrote the Audible podcast series A Somewhat Complete History of Sitting Down, which thematically explored all the ways in which the history of how we sit, and who gets to sit on what, reveals fascinating trends in the history of gender, class, race, technology, and morality. Despite the weird concept, the series was critically successful.

Greg was also the resident historian on the Radio 4 science series Origin Of Stuff, and wrote and hosted the 3-hour Radio 4 Extra documentary Hilarious Histories: What’s So Funny About The Past?in which he interviewed comedy writers and performers, such as Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes, Cariad Lloyd, Andrew Hunter Murray, and Ben Ward, about why history is such ripe territory for comedy.

TV APPEARANCES:

Apart from various interviews on TV news, Greg first made his TV debut as a panelist on BBC Two’s The Great History Quiz, alongside other renowned Tudor experts, and this led to him becoming the co-presenter on both series of Inside Versailles, which was the discurvive companion show to the BBC drama series about King Louis XIV of France.

In 2021, Greg appeared as an expert interviewee in two Channel 5 documentaries about the 19th century: Our Victorian Christmas & Victorian Britain On Film. In February 2025, Greg was a guest judge on BBC cookery show The Great British Menu

ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS:

Greg is a Honorary Fellow of the University of York’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP), an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has a BA in Archaeology & History and an MA in Medieval Studies, both from the University of York