If you are booking me for a speaking engagement, please feel free to use the below as needed.
N.B. as my surname is quite uncommon, please exercise due caution when spelling it for promotional material. Specifically, my name is Chris Bonnello, not Chris Bonello.
Speaker one-sheet
You can download my speaker one-sheet here.
Short biography (74 words)
Chris Bonnello is an autistic advocate, award-winning writer and international speaker, also a novelist and a former teacher. Since 2015 he has spoken about neurodiversity from both a professional and personal perspective; not merely encouraging acceptance, but teaching about the sheer importance of brains that think differently. Bonnello has delivered speeches as far away as India and Sydney Opera House, in addition to attracting a six-figure following on his online platform ‘Autistic Not Weird’.
Mid-length biography (158 words)
Chris Bonnello is an autistic advocate, award-winning writer and international speaker, also a novelist and a former teacher. Since 2015, his advocacy venture – where he speaks about the importance of neurodiversity from both a professional and personal perspective – has seen him deliver speaking engagements as far away as India and Sydney Opera House (working with companies including Rolls Royce, Yahoo, Invesco and Toyota), in addition to attracting over 175,000 Facebook followers to his platform ‘Autistic Not Weird’.
Bonnello is a professional member of the Professional Speaking Association, and the author of several books including the Underdogs novels, a dystopia war series with heroes from a special school. Among other accolades, he was shortlisted for the 2023 Speaker Awards (Sustainability and Positive Impact Speaker of the Year), the 2017 National Diversity Awards (Positive Role Model for Disability), and won the National Autistic Society Professionals Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual on the Autism Spectrum in 2019.
Long biography (467 words)
Chris Bonnello is an autistic advocate, award-winning writer and international speaker, also a novelist and a former teacher. Since 2015 he has spoken about neurodiversity from both a professional and personal perspective; not merely encouraging acceptance, but teaching about the sheer importance of brains that think differently. His advocacy venture has flourished into a full speaking career, leading him to deliver for clients as far away as India and Sydney Opera House.
His personal catchphrase for his advocacy is “Human progress relies on diversity of thought”, a mantra which influences his attitudes towards the importance of developing inclusive workplaces and of seeing neurodivergence as an essential strength which should directly contribute to a company’s success.
Bonnello is a professional member of the Professional Speaking Association. His corporate work, which has included clients such as Rolls Royce, Yahoo, Invesco and Toyota, seeks to enable teams to get the very best from their neurodivergent employees. His most-requested topics include ‘Neurodiversity, and making the workplace work’ and ‘The art of accommodation’, each of which discuss the totally unnecessary obstacles faced by neurodivergent employees and how to approach them with an affirming attitude and strengths-based approach. Other clients who want a more personal approach often request ‘Lessons I wish I’d learned growing up autistic’, which has applications outside of the workplace. All of Bonnello’s talks are infused with his off-the-wall sense of humour, incisive points and neuroaffirming attitude.
His online platform ‘Autistic Not Weird’ has amassed a six-figure following, providing advice, insights and guidance to a worldwide range of people, including autistic people themselves, parents and teachers of autistic young people, professionals, and those who simply want to understand the world from an autistic perspective. His insights are informed by both his personal experience of growing up autistic, and a career in teaching which stretched across mainstream primary schools, special schools, and education outside the school system. To this day he keeps himself involved with the education profession, providing school training to staff and workshops for students.
Bonnello is the author of several books including the Underdogs novels, a dystopia war series with heroes from a special school, the second of which was joint runner-up in The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker Prize’. Among other accolades, he was shortlisted for the 2023 Speaker Awards (Sustainability and Positive Impact Speaker of the Year), the 2017 National Diversity Awards (Positive Role Model for Disability), and won the National Autistic Society Professionals Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual on the Autism Spectrum in 2019.
Outside of his advocacy life, Bonnello is a proud stepfather of two, godfather of many, and formerly a captain of thirteen years in his village’s Boys’ Brigade youth group. He also competitively speedsolves Rubik’s cubes, recently winning the silver medal in a competition for successfully blindfold-solving 10 cubes at once.
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Introduction for MCs (50 words)
“Our next speaker is an award-winning autistic advocate and neurodiversity speaker, also a former teacher and a novelist. He speaks worldwide about how to help companies get the best out of their neurodivergent employees, presenting to audiences as far away as India and Sydney Opera House. Please welcome – Chris Bonnello.”