Tony DiTerlizzi

Tony DiTerlizzi (born September 6, 1969) is an American fantasy artist, children's book creator, and motion picture producer, best-known for co-creating The Spiderwick Chronicles. He illustrated the cover of the US edition of Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean.

DiTerlizzi grew up in South Florida where he attended South Fork High School. During his childhood he was introduced to the work of Norman Rockwell, Arthur Rackham, Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and Jim Henson, all of whom he cites as major creative influences. After art school, DiTerlizzi began a freelance illustration career working for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. He continued to illustrate in the gaming field for most of the 1990s, working on games such as Planescape, Changeling: The Dreaming, and Magic: The Gathering.

In 2000, with Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure, he fulfilled a childhood dream of writing and illustrating his own book. The next year he wrote and illustrated Ted, which received the 2002 Zena Sutherland Award. Ted was followed with his spooky-themed picture book of Mary Howitt's classic poem The Spider and the Fly, which became a New York Times best-seller, and for which DiTerlizzi was awarded the 2003 Caldecott Honor.

DiTerlizzi created the The Spiderwick Chronicles with friend and author, Holly Black, launched in 2003. Since then, Spiderwick has been published internationally and translated into over 30 languages. In 2005, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You was published. In 2008, Paramount released a live-action movie adaptation of the series staring Freddie Highmore, with DiTerlizzi acting as co-executive producer. A sequel series, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, began publication in September 2007.