Tony DiTerlizzi was born in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 1969. He received a degree in graphic design from the Florida School of the Arts and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 1992. He spent six years working as a freelancer for TSR, the publisher of Dungeons and Dragons. His first picture book, Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure was published in 2000. He won the University of Chicago's Zena Sutherland Book Award for Ted and a Caldecott Honor in 2003 for The Spider and the Fly. He has written and illustrated numerous books including Adventure of Meno, G is for One Gzonk!, Kenny and the Dragon, and A Hero for Wondla.
He met author Holly Black during a magazine interview on his work for Dungeons and Dragons. Together, they created two series: The Spiderwick Chronicles and Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. In 2008, a live action adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles was made by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.
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