What happened in Jeff Kinney’s life before he

became famous?

PROJECT QUESTION:

General Information Born: February 19th 1971, in Maryland

Age: 45 years

Nationality: American

Wife and Family: Julie (wife), Will and Grant (children) and Scott, Patrick and Ann Marie

(siblings)

Occupation(s): Author, Actor, Cartoonist and a Game Designer

Extremely Early Life

Jeff Kinney was born in Maryland, Fort Washington, and went to the Bishop

McNamara High School. He then went to Maryland University, where he created the

cartoon called Igdoof. After he put it in the Uni Newspaper, he realised that he wanted to be a cartoonist. This is how he discovered his love

for drawing and writing.

Igdoof Comic Strip

Relatively Early Life

In 1995 he moved to New England. He tried to pursue his cartooning career but found himself

writing his 1st Diary of a Wimpy Kid book in 1998. It then took 9 years to get published!!!

Then in 2009 he was named in the top 20 arts entertainers in the Time 100. As soon as his 1st book got published it was extremely popular, and there was about 42 million copies sold by

2010!

1st and 2nd Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books

Diary of a Wimpy Kid – ‘07 Rodrick Rules – ‘08

3rd and 4th books

The Last Straw – ‘09 Dog Days – ‘09

5th and 6th books

Ugly Truth – ‘10 Cabin Fever – ‘11

7th and 8th books

Third Wheel – ‘12 Hard Luck – ‘13

9th and 10th books

Long Haul – ‘14 Old School – ‘15

Themes and Series

After discovering his love for drawing and making funny comics at Maryland University, Jeff decided to put together two unique (and opposite) themes and

write a book which used them. That book was the trigger for the rest of a very successful series! Even

though Kinney only wrote 1 series, we all experienced a laugh every time we read his books, and we all love

the fact that he brought an American kid’s life to reality. He has been the #1 New York Times bestselling

author for an extremely long time!

Fun Facts!!!

He created a website called Poptropica.com!!!

His brother Scott wrote one of the songs in a

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

movie!!!

At one stage he studied to become a law enforcement

officer!!!

Bibliography 1 - www.wimpykid.com/about-the-author/

2 - www.wimpykid.com

3 - www.famousauthors.org/jeff-kinney

4 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Kinney_(author)

5 - www.penguin.com.au/contributors/4951/jeff-kinney

6 - https://www.penguin.com.au/products/978014330381/diary-wimpy-kid/62977/10-things-you-did-not-know-about-jeff-kinney