Editing Max Brooks (section)

==Early life==
Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]. He is the son of actress [[Anne Bancroft]] and actor, director, producer, and writer [[Mel Brooks]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|last=Brodesser-Akner|first=Taffy|author-link=Taffy Brodesser-Akner|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/max-brooks-is-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html|title=Max Brooks Is Not Kidding About the Zombie Apocalypse|work=[[The New York Times]]|date= June 21, 2013|access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref> His father is [[Jew]]ish, while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/16/mel-brooks-is-always-funny-and-often-wise-in-this-1975-playboy-interview.html|first=Alex|last=Belth|title=Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview|work=[[The Daily Beast]]|date= February 16, 2014|access-date=July 4, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/The-cinematic-Zionism-of-Mel-Brooks|first=Robert|last=Gluck|title=The cinematic Zionism of Mel Brooks|work=[[The Jerusalem Post]]|date=August 12, 2012|access-date=January 31, 2017}}</ref>

Brooks is [[dyslexic]],<ref name="Yale">{{cite web|url=http://dyslexia.yale.edu/maxbrooks.html|title=Max Brooks, Author|publisher=The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity|access-date=March 19, 2016|last=Glader|first= Sue|archive-date=January 7, 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200107183845/http://dyslexia.yale.edu/story/max-brooks-author/|url-status=live}}</ref> and recalled that during the time in which he was growing up:
{{blockquote|...they didn't even call it a disability back then; it was just "laziness," "goofing off," "you're not trying hard enough." "You can do it but you don't want to do it" — that was a big one of my teachers. And my mother, one of the greatest, most successful actresses of her day, gave up her career, put her career on the shelf, to raise me, to be my educational advocate and to teach herself about dyslexia. ... She took, every year, all of my school books that I had to read to the Institute for the Blind and had them all read onto audio cassette so I could listen to my reading list. And if I hadn't been able to do that, I wouldn't have graduated high school. I can literally say that not only did my mother give me my life, she saved my life.|source=[[NPR]] ''[[Fresh Air]]'' (2017)<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.npr.org/2017/08/15/543614192/novelist-max-brooks-on-doomsday-dyslexia-and-growing-up-with-hollywood-parents|title=Novelist Max Brooks On Doomsday, Dyslexia And Growing Up With Hollywood Parents|work=[[NPR]]|date=August 15, 2017|access-date=March 17, 2020|archive-date=March 11, 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200311062712/https://www.npr.org/2017/08/15/543614192/novelist-max-brooks-on-doomsday-dyslexia-and-growing-up-with-hollywood-parents|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Brooks attended [[Crossroads School (Santa Monica, California)|Crossroads School]] in [[Santa Monica, California]]. He studied at [[Pitzer College]] in [[Claremont, California]], where he earned a [[bachelor's degree]] in history. He also attended graduate school, studying film at [[American University]] in Washington, D.C.<ref name="Yale" />