We argue that the effective theory describing the long-wavelength dynamics of black branes is the same effective theory that describes the dynamics of biophysical membranes. We improve the phase structure of higher-dimensional black rings by considering finite thickness corrections in this effective theory, showing a striking agreement between our analytical results and recent numerical constructions while simultaneously drawing a parallel between gravity and the effective theory of biophysical membranes.Introduction. In the past three years many remarkable properties of higher-dimensional black holes were uncovered, leading to a new perspective on black holes as materials describable by effective theories of continuous media. In particular, in a long-wavelength regime, besides having fluid-like properties, they can behave as elastic (mem)-branes if bent and exhibit piezoelectric behaviour if charged and flexed. In this regime they are characterised by a set of transport coefficients such as shear and bulk viscosities [1,2], the Young modulus [3] and the piezoelectric moduli [4], which can be directly measured from gravity.Fluid and (mem)-brane elastic behaviour of a physical system can be described by a single unified framework of hydrodynamics on embedded surfaces [5,6]. When applied to black holes and black branes, this framework is commonly known as the blackfold approach [7,8], which has enabled a systematic scan of new horizon topologies in higher-dimensions [9] and the construction of new approximate solutions, such as black rings in arbitrary space-time dimensions [10].The blackfold approach, as originally developed in [7,8], consists in applying generic long wavelength perturbations of neutral asymptotically flat black p-brane metrics and describing its dynamics via an effective theory. In this case, to leading order in the perturbation, the black branes are described by a set of world volume fields composed of the induced metric γ ab , the local boost velocity u a and the brane thickness r 0 . Focusing on the stationary sector, the dynamics of these branes can be described by the free energy functional of a fluid living on an elastic brane. To next order in the perturbation, the black brane metric is corrected by terms proportional to derivatives of the fields γ ab , u a , r 0 which include, as we will explain shortly, terms proportional to the extrinsic curvature tensor K ab i , the Riemann curvature tensor of the world volume, or the vorticity of the fluid. [11] The dynamics of elastic membranes has also taken an important role in the context of biophysics, beginning with the early work of Helfrich [12] and Canham [13] in the 60's. They showed that the bending deformations of elastic membranes played a crucial role in the