Brian Edward Cox was born on 3 March 1968 in Oldham, England. He lived in nearby Chadderton from 1971. His parents worked for Yorkshire Bank — his mother as a cashier and his father as a middle manager in the same branch. He has a younger sister. A pivotal moment came at age 12 when he read Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, which inspired him to pursue a career in physics.

Cox began his career as a rock star when his band Dare signed with A&M Records in 1986. He later joined D:Ream, whose song Things Can Only Get Better was famously used as the Labour Party election anthem in 1997. Cox studied physics at the University of Manchester during his music career, earning a first-class BSc in 1991, and completed a PhD in high-energy particle physics at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg in 1998 after D:Ream disbanded.

He presented the popular five-part BBC Two series Wonders of the Solar System in 2010, followed by Wonders of the Universe in 2011. In 2013, he presented Wonders of Life, describing a physicist’s view on natural history. As an author, Brian has sold over one million books worldwide, and has undertaken several sell-out live arena tours, setting world records including for the biggest-selling science tour.

Cox married US science presenter Gia Milinovich in 2003. Their son George was born on 26 May 2009, with the middle name Eagle — taken from the Apollo 11 lunar module. Gia also has a son from a previous relationship. The family lives in London.