Christopher Cerf is an author, record and TV producer, composer-lyricist, semi-bestselling humorist, and co-founder and president of the educational media production company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., where he co-created and served as Co-Executive Producer of the ten-time Emmy-Award-winning children's literacy education show, "Between the Lions," which recently completed its 10th season on PBS.
Cerf has won three Emmys and two Grammys for his musical contributions to "Sesame Street" (for which he has written over 300 songs since the show's debut in 1970); was a senior editor at Random House, where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, and Dr. Seuss; and was a charter contributing editor of National Lampoon. He has also won two Emmys for outstanding writing in children's television. In 2010, Cerf was awarded the Harold W. McGraw Prize for his contributions to American education.
For all his success in TV, music, and publishing, Christopher Cerf is perhaps best known for his work as an author and satirist. He co-edited "The Politically Correct Dictionary" (with Henry Beard) and "The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation" (with Victor Navasky), and in 2008, he and Navasky collaborated again to produce "Mission Accomplished!," a bestselling compendium of misstatements, failed predictions, and outright lies uttered in connection with America's military adventure in Iraq.
In November 2012, Simon & Schuster published Christopher Cerf and Henry Beard's "Encyclopedia Paranoiaca" -- a comprehensive field guide to things you absolutely, positively must not eat, drink, wear, take, grow, make, buy, use, or do. including an awful lot of toxic, lethal, horrible stuff that you thought was safe, good, or healthy. Painstakingly researched, and alphabetized for easy reference, this book just might save your life. (Cerf and Beard apologize in advance if it doesn't.)
In June 2015, a new Cerf-Beard collaboration, "Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deceptive Language," was published by Blue Rider Press. The authors promised it would teach readers how to succeed in business (and politics and everything else) without really lying, and are virtually sure that it succeeded in doing so, even as it reached semi-bestseller status.
In 2019, Christopher Cerf revisited his familial roots when Beginner Books, a division of Random House Chidlren's Books co-founded by his mother and Dr. Seuss, published "A Skunk in My Bunk" (with illustrations by Nicola Slater). The publisher describes it as "a super-simple, delightfully silly Beginner Book [that[] combines phonics and word recognition to make learning to read easy–and fun!"
