Paul Dini

Paul McClaran Dini (born August 7, 1957) is an American screenwriter and comic creator.

Paul Dini was born on August 7, 1957 in New York City to Patricia (McClaran) and Robert Dini, an advertising executive.

He is of Italian descent through his father.

Dini attended 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.

Dini began writing on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe for Filmation (1983-1984) Then later for Warner Bros. Animation on Tiny Toon Adventures.

Dini wrote episodes for the 1983–1985 animated TV series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, as well as contributing to interviews on the released box sets of the series.

He wrote an episode for the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon in 1983, an episode of the Generation One Transformers cartoon series, "The Dweller in The Depths," 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 1984, he was hired to work for George Lucas on several of his animation projects.

In 1989, Dini was hired at Warner Bros. Animation to work on Tiny Toon Adventures.

Later, he moved on to Batman: The Animated Series, where he worked as a writer, producer and editor, later working on Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Beyond.

Dini was the writer for the episode "Heart of Ice", which redefined Mr. Freeze as a tragic character and won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program.

In 1989 and 1990, he contributed scripts to the live-action television horror anthology series Monsters: "One Wolf's Family" and "Talk Nice to Me".

Along with Bruce Timm, he created the animated series Freakazoid!.

He has earned five Emmy awards for his animation work.

He has been a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, most notably Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), and the subsequent DC Animated Universe.

Dini and Bruce Timm co-created the characters Harley Quinn and Terry McGinnis.

Dini and Timm collaborated on The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, which won the Eisner Award for Best Single Story in 1994.

Dini and illustrator Alex Ross created the graphic novels Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, Shazam! Power of Hope, and Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth.

His original creations include Jingle Belle, Sheriff Ida Red, and Madame Mirage.

Dini and Bruce Timm introduced Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series as her first appearance was the episode "Joker's Favor" and in 1994, they adapted the character into comics in The Batman Adventures: Mad Love one-shot.

In 1994, Dini and Timm won both the Eisner Award for Best Single Story and the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story for Mad Love.

Dini won the same Eisner prize the next year as well, for Batman Adventures Holiday Special, (a one-shot with several Christmas-themed stories) with Timm, Ronnie del Carmen, and others.

He also co-created Freakazoid! (1995–1997) with Timm, produced Duck Dodgers (2003–2005), developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog (2005–2006).

In addition to Batman: The Animated Series, Dini was a writer for Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), writer and co-creator for The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), and writer and developer for Batman Beyond (1999–2001).

In a related effort, Dini was the co-author with Chip Kidd of Batman Animated, a 1998 non-fiction coffee table book about the animated Batman franchise.

Harley Quinn was integrated into the mainstream DC Comics continuity in the Batman: Harley Quinn one-shot published in 1999.

In Batman Beyond, Dini and Timm co-created Terry McGinnis, the teenage Batman of the future, and his supporting cast.

Dini has written several comics stories for DC Comics, including an oversized graphic novel series illustrated by painter Alex Ross featuring Superman (Superman: Peace on Earth), Batman (Batman: War on Crime), Shazam (Shazam! Power of Hope), Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth), and the Justice League (Secret Origins and Liberty and Justice).

In 2002, Dini created Sheriff Ida Red, the super-powered cowgirl star of a series of books set in Dini's mythical town of Mutant, Texas.

He collaborated with Kevin Smith on Clerks: The Animated Series.

After leaving Warner Bros. Animation in early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the first season of the ABC adventure series Lost.

Dini wrote the storylines for the Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City video games.

He continued working with WB animation, working on a number of internal projects, including Krypto the Superdog and Duck Dodgers, until 2004.

A hardcover collection of the Dini and Ross stories was published in 2005 under the title The World's Greatest Super-Heroes.

Among Dini's original creations is Jingle Belle, the rebellious teen-age daughter of Santa Claus.

Dini later returned to the Star Wars universe in 2007 to script several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

In 2010, he created the live action drama series Tower Prep for Cartoon Network.

He has written a number of comic books for DC Comics.