Jeff Kinney

Jeffrey Patrick "Jeff" Kinney (born 19 February 1971) is an American game designer and cartoonist. He is the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series). He also made the child-oriented online role-playing game Poptropica.

Early life
Kinney was born and raised in . He had two brothers and a sister. He attended the  in the early 1990s. It was in college that Kinney created the popular comic strip, Igdoof that ran in the campus newspaper,  which later became Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
In 2004, Funbrain and Kinney released a web-book called Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the website made daily entries until June 2005. The web-book was a instant hit, reaching 20 million views by 2007, causing many readers to request a published version of the web-book. Kinney agreed and released Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2007, but the book version was quite different. The most notable difference was that the drawings were edited using programs, the plot was slightly changed, and the book was also a little shortened. To date, thirteen Wimpy Kid books have been released, including two Do-It-Yourself books and three Movie diaries.

Professional Work
Kinney works as a writer and designer of online games. He also created the child-friendly website, Poptropica, which is played by many kids around the world. Poptropica has two Wimpy Kid based islands called Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk where many characters and places from Wimpy Kid are present. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has 58 million copies in print worldwide in softcover and in hardcover. In 2010 Wimpy kid was developed into a film and Kinney served as the executive producer. In the Rodrick Rules movie, he played as the character Mr. Hills and returned in the Dog Days movie to reprise the character.

Personal life
Kinney attended in, and currently lives in  with his wife, Julie, and two sons, Will and Grant. Jeff has a small house next to his home, where he writes and does karaoke. The character of Rodrick is believed to be based on his elder brother, Scott Kinney (musician), and Manny is believed to be based on his younger brother, Pat. His great-grandmother was Polish.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

 * 1) Diary of a Wimpy Kid (April 1, 2007)
 * 2) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (February 1, 2008)
 * 3) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (January 13, 2009)
 * 4) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (October 12, 2009)
 * 5) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (November 9, 2010)
 * 6) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (November 15, 2011)
 * 7) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (November 13, 2012)
 * 8) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (November 5, 2013)
 * 9) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (November 4, 2014)
 * 10) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School (November 3, 2015)
 * 11) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (November 1, 2016)
 * 12) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (November 7, 2017)
 * 13) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown (October 30, 2018)
 * 14) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball (November 5, 2019)
 * 15) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End (October 27, 2020)
 * 16) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot (October 26, 2021)

Rowley Jefferson

 * 1) Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal (April 9, 2019)
 * 2) Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure (August 4, 2020)
 * 3) Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (March 16, 2021)

Supplementary books

 * 1) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Do-It-Yourself Book (October 1, 2009)
 * 2) The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (Original: March 16, 2010, 1st Revised Edition: February 15, 2011, 2nd Revised Edition: June 26, 2012)
 * 3) The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (May 10, 2011)
 * 4) The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter (May 9, 2017)

Films
A film based on the first book was released on March 19, 2010. It was produced by and directed by . A second film based on the second book was released on March 15, 2011. It was directed by. Kinney played a small role in the film. A third film based on Dog Days and The Last Straw was released on 3 August 2012. Kinney once again played the small role of Mr. Hills. In 2013, he announced a fourth film being animated for 2014, but since December that year, nothing revealed came out. A new film based on the book The Long Haul is most likely going to come out after it was hinted at, at the 3rd annual Virtually Live Event, a casting call for 2 parts was released and some of the character's actors have been revealed.