Raised in Dagenham, London, Neil Humphreys migrated to Singapore in 1996 and left for Australia in 2006—only to return to Singapore in 2011. He has worked as a humor columnist, first at TODAY, then at The Straits Times and The New Paper, and continues to write for newspapers, magazines, and websites across Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, and the UK. His humor, football, and lifestyle columns have also appeared in FourFourTwo, Esquire, The New Paper, and The Age. He now co-hosts radio shows for Money FM 89.3.

By 2001, he was one of Singapore’s best-selling authors. His first book, Notes From an Even Smaller Island, became an immediate best-seller and travelled across Southeast Asia, Australia, and Britain. Two years later, his second book, Scribbles from the Same Island, a compilation of his popular humor columns in Weekend Today, was launched in Singapore and Malaysia, and went on to become an immediate best-seller. In 2006, Final Notes from a Great Island: A Farewell Tour of Singapore marked the completion of the trilogy. Humphreys has since written 32 books.