James Brabazon is an author, frontline-journalist and documentary filmmaker. Based in the UK, he has travelled to over 70 countries – investigating, filming and directing in the world's most hostile environments. He is the author of the international bestseller My Friend the Mercenary, a memoir recounting his experiences of the Liberian civil war and the Equatorial Guinea coup plot; and the Max McLean series of spy thrillers The Break Line and Arkhangel (UK) / All Fall Down (USA).

James was the only journalist to film the Liberian LURD rebel group fighting to overthrow President Charles Taylor. He spent over six months travelling with the rebels in Liberia in 2002 and 2003 on the award-winning documentary projects Liberia: A Journey Without Maps and Liberia: An Uncivil War.

Since 2002 James has produced and directed over forty films for Channel 4, the BBC, HBO, Fusion and Discovery.

In Channel 4's critically acclaimed Unreported World series, James has made films in locations including Somalia (featuring an exclusive interview with a senior al-Qaeda commander); India; Ivory Coast; Colombia; Cameroon; Papua New Guinea; and Syria, filming a volunteer doctor in the frontline town of Salma, in Latakia; and the last days of the siege of Kobani in 2015 for the RTS Award-nominated film The City that Beat ISIS.

For Channel 4's Dispatches, James has filmed with US troops in Baghdad (Iraq: The Reckoning) for which he gained a second BAFTA nomination; and reported the inside story of the planned coup in Equatorial Guinea (My Friend the Mercenary).

In 2013 James produced the Academy Award shortlisted and double EMMY-nominated feature documentary Which Way Is The Frontline From Here? which tells the life story of his friend and colleague the photographer Tim Hetherington, who was killed while working in Libya in April 2011.

James was awarded the IDA Courage Under Fire Award 2004 and the Rory Peck Trust Sony International Impact Award 2003. His work in Liberia won many international accolades including the Rory Peck Trust Freelancer's Choice Award 2003; the Special Jury Award IDFA 2004 and two EMMY nominations. James's films have provoked major international political investigations in Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Jamaica. He has given evidence as an expert witness at a war crimes trial in the Hague.

Before he began making films, worked as a photojournalist covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Northern Ireland, Kashmir and Zimbabwe – where he narrowly survived a crocodile attack.

As well as being an author, James is also Channel 4's Hostile Filming Consultant with oversight of all high-risk deployments. He lives in a fisherman's cottage by the English Channel, where he can be found plotting his next adventure.