Paul Dini (1957)

 early life

Paul Dini was born in New York City. He attended the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California on an art scholarship. He attended Emerson College in Boston, where he earned a BFA degree in creative writing.

During college, he began doing freelance animation scripts for Filmation, and a number of other studios. In 1984, he was hired to work for George Lucas on several of his animation projects. Dini later returned to the Star Wars universe in 2007 to script several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

 career

Dini wrote a number of episodes of the 1983-85 animated TV series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that became favorites amongst the show's fans over the Internet, as well as contributing to interviews on the released box sets of the series, though Dini has made no secret of his distaste for Filmation and the He-Man concept. He also wrote an episode of the Generation One Transformers cartoon series, "The Dweller in The Depths," and an episode of the 1985 G.I. Joe cartoon called "Jungle Trap" and contributed to various episodes of the Star Wars: Ewoks animated series, several of which included rare appearances from the Empire.

In 1989, he was hired at Warner Bros. Animation to work on Tiny Toon Adventures. Later, he moved onto Batman: The Animated Series, where he worked as a writer, producer and editor, later working on Batman Beyond. He continued working with WB animation, working on a number of internal projects, including Krypto the Superdog and Duck Dodgers, until 2004. In 1989 and again in 1990, he contributed scripts to the live-action television horror anthology series Monsters: "One Wolf's Family" and "Talk Nice to Me".

He has earned five Emmy awards for his animation work. In a related effort, Dini was also the co-author of Batman Animated, a 1998 non-fiction coffee table book about the animated Batman franchise.

Dini has also written several comics stories for DC Comics, including an acclaimed oversized graphic novel series illustrated by painter Alex Ross. (A hardcover collection of the Dini and Ross stories was published in late summer 2005 under the title The World's Greatest Superheroes.) Other books written by Dini for DC have featured his Batman Animated creation Harley Quinn as well as classic characters Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Zatanna.

Best known among Dini's original creations is Jingle Belle, the rebellious teen-age daughter of Santa Claus. Dini also created Sheriff Ida Red, the super-powered cowgirl star of a series of books set in Dini's mythical town of Mutant, Texas. Perhaps his greatest character contribution is the introduction of Harley Quinn on Batman: The Animated Series.

He collaborated with Kevin Smith on Clerks: The Animated Series. In 2001 Dini made a cameo appearance in Smith's film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back during the scene in which Jay and Silent Bob wear ridiculous looking costumes for a film being directed by Chris Rock, in which Dini says to them "you guys look pretty bad ass".

In 2006, Dini became the writer for DC Comics' Detective Comics. That same year, he announced that he was writing a hardcover graphic novel starring Zatanna and Black Canary. In 2007, he was announced as the head writer of that company's weekly series, Countdown. Dini is currently co-writing the script for the upcoming Science Ninja Team Gatchaman movie. Dini is also currently writing a series for Top Cow Productions, based in a character he created, Madame Mirage.

In July 2008, Dini started a partnership with GoAnimate to launch his Super Rica & Rashy series on the platform. Dini writes episodes released on the website on a regular basis. He also lets anyone use his characters to create their own stories using the website's online animation creation application.

In 2009, Dini was the writer of two ongoing Batman titles: Batman: Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens. He also returned to write animated version of Batman in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite". In the very same episode, he appeared in an animated form in comic book convention parody scene, where he was wearing Harley Quinn's costume, along with Bruce Timm wearing Joker's costume next to him. He would go on to write several additional episodes for the series, including "Chill of the Night!", which contained a team-up between Batman and Zatanna, one of Dini's favorite characters. Dini was also credited for penning the highly acclaimed storyline in Rocksteady Studios video game Batman: Arkham Asylum which was released on August 25, 2009. He also wrote three episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "Cloud of Darkness," "Holocron Heist," and "Voyage of Temptation." Dini was member of the Cartoon Network: Tower Prep with Firebreather Sneak event on the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

It was announced in episode #119 of comic book blog and podcast iFanboy, and again on February 12, 2008 with the launch of their new website, that Dini would begin writing a column. On February 14, 2008 the first edition of Dini's column, "200 Words with Paul Dini" was released.

On August 4, 2010, it was confirmed that Paul Dini will be involved in Marvel Comics' upcoming animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, which is set to air on Disney XD in 2012. He is also working on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., an animated series centered around the Hulk and his supporting cast.

Dini also wrote the script for Bloodspell, an original graphic novel starring Black Canary and Zatanna. The book is expected to be released sometime in 2012.

 Personal life

Paul Dini lives in Los Angeles, California. Together, he and his wife, magician Misty Lee, have created an on-line interview feature called Monkey Talk that runs at Kevin Smith's website, Quick Stop Entertainment.com.

Paul Dini is also an amateur stage magician, and an active member of the Academy of Magical Arts.