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 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 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==