Gregory "Max" Bruce (Beginning-Intermediate Urdu 2008) holds a degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz in Philosophy. He is a graduate student in the Asian Studies department at the University of Texas-Austin where he studies Urdu literature.

Max has received several awards to study Urdu and Persian in South Asia, including UC Berkeley's BULPIP award and the American Institute of Indian Studies Academic Year Advanced Language Program fellowship. He is currently a student liaison at the University of California-Berkeley AIIS Urdu Language Program in Lucknow, India.

Max has been teaching since 2002. He has worked as an instructor in the percussive arts and is affiliated with the Lucknow gharana of tabla drumming. He has also worked as a language coach in Arabic and Urdu pronunciation.