Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984) is an Australian

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

historian, founder of

Emojipedia Emojipedia is an emoji reference website which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters in the Unicode Standard. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia or emoji dictionary, Emojipedia also publishes articles and prov ...

, creator of World Emoji Day and widely regarded as an expert on emoji. Business Insider listed Burge in the ''UK Tech 100'' in 2016, 2017 and 2018 referring to him as "The Emoji Maestro" while other publications have used terms such as "Emoji King" or "Lord of Emojis". ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' dubbed Burge "The

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

of Emoji" in 2020.

Emojipedia

In July 2013, Burge started the emoji reference site

, after wondering how long the doughnut emoji had been in existence, and not being able to find an answer on

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

. ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' reported the site had 23 million page views per month in 2017. Burge was ''Chief Emoji Officer'' at Emojipedia between 2016 and 2022, overseeing all editorial content on the site. This title was described by

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

in 2019 as "one of the most absurd job titles in tech". During his time at Emojipedia, Burge worked with professional athletes

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first docume ...

and Sasha DiGiulian to improve the accuracy of Emojipedia's sample images for the skateboard and rock climber respectively. Jenken Magazine reported: "While they were on the phone one day, Hawk sent Burge a picture of his own board" which was used as the basis of Emojipedia's revised skateboard design. In 2021, Emojipedia served over 500 million annual page views. Emojipedia was acquired by Zedge in August 2021 for an undisclosed amount.

Unicode

Currently representing Emojipedia on the

Unicode Technical Committee The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California, Mountain View, California, U.S. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which ...

, Burge previously held a position as vice-chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee from 2017 to 2019. Described as a leading authority on emoji use, Burge urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon in 2016, citing cross-platform confusion. Emoji flags for England, Scotland, and Wales were added to the Unicode Standard in 2017 after a formal proposal co-authored by Burge was approved. Rather than individual code points, they are represented by tag sequences. Speaking to Crikey in 2022, Burge spoke against superfluous emoji additions: "representation is important but I'm not sure we need another abacus or lab coat emoji".

Writing

Burge has been a regular news contributor to Emojipedia and responsible for many of the initial emoji definitions on the reference website. Additionally he has written for publications such Six Colors,

Medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...

, and The Internet Review. In August 2023,

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...

reported that Burge was writing for Mobile Tech Journal. In 2019, Burge raised the issue of Facebook using user-submitted phone numbers for undocumented purposes, and in 2020, he identified TikTok accessing user clipboard data on every keystroke.

Podcasting

Burge hosted

Emoji Wrap An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

, a podcast from Emojipedia covering "global emoji news and trends" between August 2016 and December 2020 interviewing guests including Mark Davis, Myke Hurley, Jason Snell and Christina Warren.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

notes that Google product manager Agustin Fonts was "hesitant about shifting to a water pistol" when discussing the Android gun emoji with Burge on the Emoji Wrap podcast. Between 2017 and 2023, Burge appeared frequently on podcasts from Relay FM and The Incomparable.

Public speaking

The

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

reported that Burge "lectured on the history and social impact of emojis" at TEDxEastEnd at London's Hackney Empire in 2017. In addition, Burge has spoken at conferences such as ''The Next Web'' in Amsterdam, ''Smart Future'' in Riga, ''Design Matters'' in Copenhagen and ''Úll'' in Killarney. Institutions that have hosted Burge include

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

Eye Magazine ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited t ...

, London Design Museum,

The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

World Emoji Day

World Emoji Day is a "global celebration of emoji" created by Burge in 2014. According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', he created the day on "July 17 based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones". Burge told

Axios Axios commonly refers to: * Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia * ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website Axios may also refer to: Brands and enterprises * Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...

in 2017 that "

Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who is the current chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Cook had previously been the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs. Cook joined ...

tweeted about orld Emoji Daythis year so I was kind of excited about that". In 2017 Burge discussed the origin of World Emoji Day and

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

BUILD, attended the lighting of the Empire State Building "emoji yellow" with ''

The Emoji Movie ''The Emoji Movie'' is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Tony Leondis from a screenplay he co-wrote with Eric Si ...

'' voice cast

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor. With a career spanning over seven decades of Patrick Stewart on stage and screen, stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Patrick Stewart, variou ...

Maya Rudolph Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress and comedian. In 2000, she became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). During her tenure on the show, she appeared in supporting roles in ...

and

Jake T. Austin Jake Toranzo Austin Szymanski (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Jake T. Austin, is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor at the age of seven, Austin is best known for his role as Max Russo on the Disney Channel ...

, and announced the winners of the annual World Emoji Awards from the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...

hosted a "Saks Celebrates World Emoji Day" red carpet event in 2017 which was attended by Burge. On World Emoji Day 2019, Burge attended the launch of an exhibition at the National Museum of Cinema and spoke alongside Unicode Consortium co-founder Mark Davis at

. Burge claimed to "relax and enjoy it orld Emoji Dayat least once" in 2022, after stepping down from Emojipedia.

Personal life

Burge was born in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, and educated at

Assumption College, Kilmore Assumption College (often known as ACK, where the K stands for Kilmore) is an Australian Roman Catholic Church in Australia, Catholic co-educational Secondary school, secondary Day school, day and boarding school. The school is located in the tow ...

before graduating from

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

. In 2019 Burge moved onto a 53 ft narrowboat named Dottie M and gained popularity on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

with viral clips navigating rivers and

canals of the United Kingdom The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a History of the British canal system, varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the ...

. In 2024, Burge told the

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

he was splitting his time living between the UK and Melbourne, Australia.

References

External links

Jeremy Burge's personal page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burge, Jeremy 1984 births Living people Australian male bloggers Australian podcasters People involved with Unicode People educated at Assumption College, Kilmore