Christian Cooper

Christian Cooper is an American science writer and editor, and also a comics writer and editor. He is based in New York City. In 2023, Random House published Cooper's memoir, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. He gained cultural notoriety after a false police report was made by a white woman who went viral for her erratic behavior while calling the police on him in a New York park in 2020, known as the Central Park birdwatching incident.

Career

Cooper is currently a senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications and has become a frequent substitute co-host for the public access television news series Gay USA. On May 16, 2022, National Geographic announced Cooper would host a show on their American TV channel called Extraordinary Birder, exploring the world of birds alongside experts in the field. The show premiered on June 17, 2023.
On June 8, 2024, Cooper won a Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Daytime Personality category for his work on Extraordinary Birder.

Comics

Cooper was one of the first openly gay editors at Marvel; colleague and friend Kelly Corvese was the first. He introduced the first gay male character in Star Trek, Yoshi Mishima, in the Starfleet Academy series, which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in 1999. He also introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel, Victoria Montesi and created and authored Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic. Cooper was also an associate editor for Alpha Flight #106 in which the character Northstar came out as gay.
Cooper has written stories for Marvel Comics Presents, which often feature characters such as Ghost Rider and Vengeance. He has also edited a number of X-Men collections, and the final two issues of the Marvel Swimsuit Special.

Personal life

Born in 1963 to parents who were both teachers, Cooper found his interest in birds while reading a birdwatching book during a roadtrip from his Long Island childhood home to California. In the 1980s, he was president of the Harvard Ornithological Club, and is currently on the board of directors for NYC Bird Alliance. Cooper has a long history of LGBT activism including being the co-chair of the board of directors of GLAAD in the 1980s.
On May 25, 2020, Cooper was involved in a confrontation with a dog walker in Central Park, with the woman calling the police over a disagreement on whether her dog should be leashed in the area, characterising Cooper's behavior as "threatening". The incident led to the creation of Black Birders Week, and is the basis for Cooper's online comic book about racism, illustrated by Alitha Martinez and published by DC Comics, called It's a Bird.