Bio

Jeff Kinney is an online game developer, designer, the creator of Poptropica.com, and the #1 New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of the wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Born in Maryland in the 1970s, Jeff spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. As a young reader, Jeff was inspired by the books of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Piers Anthony, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Jeff attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that he ran a comic strip called "lgdoof" in the campus newspaper and knew that he wanted to be become a newspaper strip cartoonist.

Although Jeff started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 1998, it wasn't until spring of 2007 that his book was published — and quickly became a New York Times bestseller, eventually reaching the number one spot.  In 2010, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was made into a movie starring Zach Gordon as Greg Heffley.

In 2009, Jeff was named one of the 20 Artists & Entertainers in The TIME 100, the magazine's list of The World's Most Influential people.

Jeff lives Plainville, Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.

Visit Jeff online at www.wimpykid.com and http://gregheffley.blogspot.com

"Kinney has a gift for believable preteen dialogue and narration, and the illustrations serve as a hilarious counterpoint to Greg's often deadpan voice." — Publishers Weekly, starred Review, on Diary of a Wimpy Kid

"The real and deeper appeal of Greg;s story is the unapologetic honesty of his adolescence; he comes across as a real kid, and his story is one that will appeal to all those real kids who feel just like him." — Booklist, on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules