Meet the author

Jeff Kinney.

Writer & illustrator · United States · b. 1971

Jeff Kinney: creator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid — the illustrated-diary novel sequence that's anchored the 8–12 reluctant-reader shelf for nearly two decades, with 275m+ copies sold and a long film history.

Jeff Kinney is an American author-illustrator born in 1971, the creator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) and one of the bestselling children's-book authors of the last two decades. The Wimpy Kid books, illustrated diary novels narrated by deeply mediocre middle-schooler Greg Heffley, have sold over 275 million copies worldwide across more than 20 main-series volumes, with multiple film and animated adaptations. Kinney's voice is dry, observational and quietly subversive about how middle-school social hierarchy actually works, which is why the series has had such durable appeal across multiple generations of 8–12-year-olds. He also writes the Rowley Jefferson spin-off books. A core reluctant-reader staple.