Jeremy Deller: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Jeremy Deller said elsewhere, not written here

More successful with girls.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

I wanted to be a doctor, like my father.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

A singer. I wanted to live off music ever since I was a child – a wish that came true when I was over 35 years old.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2024 source ↗

Sounds cliched, but I always wanted to be an actor.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 March 2025 source ↗

Emma Barnett British broadcaster and journalist

A fishmonger, then a surgeon.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 February 2021 source ↗

Highwayman by the Highwaymen.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

Jüngling (1917) by Erich Heckel.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

Either Stevie Wonder or Willie Nelson. Hopefully, no explanation required.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

Three squaddies on a train in 1995.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

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