D. J. MacHale was born on March 11, 1956. He received a BFA in film production from New York University. Before writing his best selling Pendragon series, he worked as a freelance writer and director for television and movies. He co-created Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? series, wrote several ABC After-School Specials, directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, and co-created, wrote and produced the Showtime series Chris Cross, which won the CableAce award for Best Youth Series. He co-created, produced, wrote and directed the Discovery Kids/NBC television series Flight 29 Down, which earned him the Writers Guild of America award for Outstanding… Children's Script. His other written works include The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Monster Princess, and the Morpheus Road series.