18 Facts About Deborah Hyde

Deborah Hyde is a British sceptic, folklorist, cultural anthropologist, Ufologist, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and editor-in-chief of The Skeptic.

Deborah Hyde writes and lectures extensively about superstition, cryptozoology, religion and belief in the paranormal, with special regard to the folklore, psychology and sociology behind these phenomena, and has been introduced as a "vampire expert".

Deborah Hyde started out believing, but that changed with her discovering The Black Arts by occult writer Richard Cavendish, which made her apply a more analytic approach to these phenomena.

For years Deborah Hyde was in the business of distributing collectibles, during which time she spent a few years in New York City.

Deborah Hyde has contributed to several motion pictures as a staff member and coordinator in the makeup department, responsible for prosthetics and creature effects, including for the horror films Doghouse and 1408.

Deborah Hyde was creature effects coordinator for the drama On a Clear Day.

Deborah Hyde has had several on-screen roles, appearing in Doghouse as the barmaid, and as the Corpse Queen in The Brothers Grimm.

Deborah Hyde contributed to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as a tendril of the magical strangling Devil's Snare plant.

In 2013 Deborah Hyde was the producer of the short film "Wisdom", in which she voiced one of the characters, and in 2018, she was the co-executive producer of the short film September Man.

Deborah Hyde started to research and write about belief in the supernatural in the 1990s, and initially blogged under the name "Jourdemayne".

Deborah Hyde has been invited to the Ratio Forum for Popular Science in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2013 where she gave a talk on Vampires and attended a panel discussion along with Susan Blackmore.

In 2018, Deborah Hyde delivered a presentation about the historical roots of vampire folklore in Eastern Europe at CSICon in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2011, Deborah Hyde was asked to take part in a discussion on This Morning on ITV1 as an expert, representing the sceptical viewpoint about the Enfield Poltergeist case from 1977.

Janet Hodgson, who had been a child at the time of the case, made a rare appearance on the show, along with Guy Lyon Playfair, both of whom were deeply insulted by the rationalistic comments Deborah Hyde made during the discussion.

In 2011, Hyde was appointed managing editor of The Skeptic, a UK magazine promoting science and critical thinking, succeeding Lindsay Kallis and many sceptics who had been editors in the past, including Chris French and founder of the magazine Wendy M Grossman.

In 2012, Deborah Hyde proposed the idea of a prize that could be given to those with serious achievements within different fields of sceptical activism, in order to provide recognition to people investing large amounts of work in promoting science and scepticism.

Deborah Hyde was co-convenor of Westminster Skeptics, and acts as a speaker-liaison of the Soho Skeptics, an independent think tank involving several organisations, writers, film-makers, podcasters to promote talks, panel discussions and other events in the London area.

In 2017, Deborah Hyde was elected as a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a program of the Center for Inquiry in recognition of her work in sceptical media and events.