Tommy Edison

Tommy Edison (born July 17, 1963) is an American YouTuber, radio presenter and film critic known for his blindness and self-deprecating sense of humor. Since 1994, he has worked as a traffic reporter for the station Star 99.9 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a job which he accomplishes by listening to police scanners and calls from listeners.

Motivated to review films by his frustration with their visual language, he started a YouTube channel called Blind Film Critic with his friend Ben Churchill in 2011. His reviews focus on script, music and sound effects. The first film he reviewed was Scream 4; his favorites include Hugo, Goodfellas, Clerks and American Hustle. In 2013, audio description allowed him to watch his first silent film, which he joked was "eye-opening"—however, he does not use it when preparing his reviews. He was endorsed by Roger Ebert in 2011, and has been featured on The Howard Stern Show and CNN. He also makes videos answering viewers' questions about blindness on another channel entitled The Tommy Edison Experience, and has covered topics such as dreams, colors, Braille and assistive technology.

Edison has been blind since birth, and was born with an underdeveloped optic nerve. He was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended Canterbury School and the University of Bridgeport, where he studied music. He has credited his parents for treating him the same as his sighted sisters during his upbringing. After developing an interest in local and New York radio stations, he was hired as a disc jockey for the station WJAZ in Stamford, Connecticut in 1987, becoming its traffic reporter two years later.

In 2016 he and his producer Ben Churchill moved to the Los Angeles area and began the next phase in his career as a public figure.

Edison is married to Alanna Uhrich, a concert promoter.