David Hesmondhalgh is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. He is the author of The Cultural Industries (SAGE, 2019); Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour (Palgrave, 2015, co-written with Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett); Why Music Matters (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013); and Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (Routledge, 2011, co-written with Sarah Baker). He is also editor or co-editor of eight other books or special journal issues on media, music and culture, including a special issue of Popular Communication (co-edited with Anamik Saha) on Race and Cultural Production; The Media and Social Theory (Routledge, co-edited with Jason Toynbee, 2008) and Media and Society, 6th edition (Bloomsbury, co-edited with James Curran, 2019). He was born and raised in Accrington, Lancashire, did his first degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and received his PhD from Goldsmiths University of London in 1996. He lives in Yorkshire with his partner, the philosopher Helen Steward, and they have two adult children, Rosa and Joe.
