About Matt Potter

Matt Potter is a British journalist, creative lead, chief content officer, author, broadcaster, showpony, screenwriter, nerd and fidget-britches.

He has reported for BBC Radio from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, co-presented Radio 1’s award-winning global travel shows, and presented and carried out investigations for the Discovery channel and Channel 4.

He’s published five books – two for the BBC, Outlaws Inc., now in development as a Hollywood movie, The Last Goodbye, a social history of the resignation published by Constable & Robinson, and his latest, We Are All Targets: How Renegade Hackers Invented Cyber War And Unleashed An Age Of Global Chaos, on Hachette US worldwide, and Silvertail in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Matt also writes TV and movies – Hollywood and indie. He’s written series for Discovery and programmes for the BBC, and co-wrote feature documentary The Notorious Mr Bout, on the life and times of arms smuggler Viktor Bout. The film premiered to acclaim at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and led the BBC’s Storyville documentary season. He’s currently working with Thunder Road pictures in Hollywood on the adaptation of Outlaws Inc. for the big screen. 

He is a regular writer for The Washington Post, Time, and others, and has worked for the BBC, Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, London Lite, Sabotage Times, Golf Monthly, Esquire, Sunday Telegraph, Jack, Maxim, the Irish Examiner, and been called on for on-air expertise and opinion by the BBC, CNN, ARD and more. His reports on cocaine trafficking in Latin America have been published in Russian, German and English. As a journalist in Belgrade, he broke the story of the NATO ‘spy’ giving away secrets to Serb forces on the web, and was questioned by MI5 as a result. 

He’s also a creative lead, working to help brands access the same powerful storytelling capability that makes him in-demand as a shaper of stories for the public. 

He lives in London, wrestles with lots of things – including ADHD and his responsibilities as the proud but concerned owner of three glorious stick insects, and would love to hear from you.

Portrait: Simon Tang