Richard Cooke is an author, reporter and screenwriter mostly based in Sydney, Australia.

The author of three books, he is the former US correspondent and current contributing editor to the The Monthly magazine.

He has been published by many others internationally, including the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Republic, WIRED and the Paris Review. His work has been selected for the Best of Longform, Best Australian Essays, and a Lithub Literary Story of the Year.

In 2023 he won the 2023 June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism in the mid-year Walkley Awards, and the Walkley Award for Feature Writing. In 2018 he won the Mumbrella Publish Award Columnist of the Year award, and was a finalist for the Walkley-Pascall Award for arts criticism.

He is the former sports editor of The Saturday Paper, the former arts editor of Time Out Sydney, and for a time edited The Chaser newspaper.

On screen, he co-created ABC TV’s The Checkout, and has produced, written, script-edited and consulted widely, including credits on two international number one Netflix series. Most recently, he appeared in the critically acclaimed Dynasty: The Murdochs.

He has taught non-fiction writing at the Faber Academy, the Judith Neilson Institute and elsewhere. He is represented by the Wylie Agency.

His latest book, The Last Best Place On The Internet: A Human History of Wikipedia, is published by W. W. Norton & Company in the United States and Granta in the United Kingdom.