Thomas Brezina

Thomas Conrad Brezina (born January 30, 1963 in Vienna), is an Austrian writer of children's books and TV-Presenter. He is especially known for his series The Knickerbocker Gang, A Case for You and the Tiger-Team and his stories about the talking bike Tom Turbo. He has published over 550 books and his work has been translated into 35 languages.

During his school days Brezina already started as a writer an received the “Grand Austrian Youth Prize” for his screenplays for the TV-puppet-show “Tim, Tom and Dominik”. Subsequently, he worked as a puppeteer at Arminio Rothstein, better known as Clown Habakkuk in Austria, and played the magician Tintifax among others.

Brezina wrote bedtime stories and radio plays and finally began working as an assistant director for shows such as Am dam des, a children’s program by Austrian national public service broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). Subsequently Brezina became a staffer at ORF as editor, director and eventually presenter for children’s and youth programs.

His breakthrough as a writer occurred in 1990 with the series The Knickerbocker Gang. Three years later the book series Tom Turbo followed – a detective-series about the “world’s smartest bicycle” – which was later adapted for TV as an interactive children’s program. . Since 2008 Brezina is responsible for the children’s program okidoki, broadcast on ORF eins.

Brezina has received numerous awards for his work, including the “Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria” and the most important Austrian TV award Romy for the educational program Forscherexpress (“Researcher’s Express”).

Brezina lives in Vienna and London. Privately he engages in charities for disadvantaged children and became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Austria in 1996. For his 50th birthday he took a children’s sponsorship for Light for the World and he is currently engaged as a testimonial for Austrian NGO Volkshilfe.

...
Wikipedia