Alexander Ross

Dr. Alexander Ross

Alexander (Eskandar) Ross is an Iranian-American cultural historian with emphasis on the Film Industry. He took two degrees from the University of Cambridge before spending the next 17 years working with and for the Hollywood Studios. As a literary agent he discovered Quentin Tarantino, Andrew Niccol (Truman Show), Iris Yamashita (Letters from Iwo Jima) and several others. He also produced a romantic comedy which he sold to Warner Bros. Alexander eventually went back to academia to get his PhD which was followed by several years of research at the University of Oxford.

He is widely published with his monograph entitled: “The Evolution of Hollywood’s Calculated Blockbuster Films: Blockbusted” released in 2023. He is presently working on an oral history of the 1982 film Blade Runner and an anthology of the 1982 film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for Bloomsbury Press. 

Working from a multidisciplinary perspective, Alexander explores the issues, drivers and dynamics of cultural hegemony. He is interested in chronicling a post-colonial world where major, yet often sidelined, cultures from around the globe are affirmed, accepted and respected for their equally significant canons, systems and languages of creative expression. At Oxford, under the auspices of Prof. Faisal Devji, he started work on a monograph on the importance of an education rich in critical thinking to the tribal regions of Pakistan (Chitral). The book specifically looks at the importance of providing young women with such an education, as well as the resulting cultural empowerment and defiance of totalitarian regimes. Alexander is involved with several educational projects in that part of the world.

He was recently elected a Fellow of New College, Oxford and Branford College, Yale. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Alexander is a member of the British Film & TV Academy (BAFTA) and was appointed an expert to the European Union’s: Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) MEDIA Program in 2016. In addition to having been interviewed on prime-time network T.V. by Dateline N.B.C, his career has been covered by: The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Reuters, Newsday, The London Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian and others. He also contributes to a number of news magazines such as Newsweek.