Paul Dini (born August 7, 1957) is an American writer and producer who works in the television and comic book industries. He is best known as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros./DC Comics animated series, including Ewoks, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Animated Series, The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond and Duck Dodgers. He also developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog and contributed scripts to Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. After leaving Warner Bros. in early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the popular ABC adventure series Lost. He has also written a number of comic books for DC Comics, including Harley Quinn and Peace on Earth. It has been announced that after two decades of doing DC related animated projects, Paul Dini will be going over to Marvel to serve as a writer and producer for the Ultimate Spider-Man animated project. Fall 2010 also sees the debut of Tower Prep, a new live drama series Dini created for Cartoon Network.
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 The Clone Wars.
Dini wrote a number of episodes of the 1983-85 animated TV series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that become 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. Filmation library licensed to BCI Eclipse for U.S. DVD releases! — Toon Zone Forum 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 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 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.
He has earned five Emmy awards for his animation work. In a related effort, Dini was also the co-author (with Chip Kidd) 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 (along with designs by Bruce Timm) on The Animated Series.
He collaborated with Kevin Smith on 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. [Updated] Dc'S Next Weekly Series "Countdown" To Debut In May — Newsarama 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 2007, Dini became Editor-in-Chief for the social networking group Zeros 2 Heroes Media' pilot project Comic Creation Nation and is also a member of Zeros 2 Heroes Media Board of Directors, alongside Greg Zeschuk (President and Co-Executive Producer at BioWare Corp, recently acquired by EA) and former Lucasfilm and Hanna-Barbera business affairs executive Paul Gertz (Executive Vice President of Rainmaker Animation).
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 will be the writer of two ongoing Batman titles: Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens. He also returned to write animated version of Batman in 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. Dini was also credited for penning the highly acclaimed storyline in Rocksteady Studios video game Arkham Asylum which was released on August 25, 2009. He also wrote three episodes of 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, 02.10.08 — Episode #119: Teen Titans: Year One #2 and again on February 12, 2008 with the launch of their new website, that Dini would begin writing a column. Welcome to iFanboy 3.0! On February 14, 2008 the first edition of Dini's column, "200 Words with Paul Dini" was released. 200 Words with Paul Dini #1 — Sweethearts
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 Fall 2011.
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.
Paul Dini has won Emmy awards as part of the creation team for various award-winning programs:
1995, Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less): "Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery", FOX, Rich Arons, Director/Writer; Paul Dini, Writer; Michael Gerard, Producer; Michael Gerard, Director; Peter Hastings, Producer; Peter Hastings, Writer; Rusty Mills, Director; Greg Reyna, Director; Tom Ruegger, Senior Producer; Paul Rugg, Writer; Steven Spielberg, Executive Producer
1991, Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less): "Tiny Toon Adventures: The Looney Beginning — CBS — RICH ARONS, Director; Paul Dini, Writer; GLEN KENNEDY, Director; DAVE MARSHALL, Director; TOM RUEGGER, Writer/Producer; STEVEN SPIELBERG, Executive Producer; SHERRI STONER, Writer" Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Eisner and Harvey Award in 1994 for Mad Love; an Eisner for Batman Adventures Holiday Special in 1995, a Harvey for Batman: War on Crime in 2000.
Dini has won five Emmy awards for his writing on Tiny Toon Adventures, The Animated Series and Batman Beyond.
He received the Writer's Guild Animation Writing award in 2000 and a second WGA award for dramatic television writing in 2006 as a member of the writing team for Lost.
Dini is also a three time winner of the animation industry's Annie Awards and has won seven comics industry Eisner Awards and three Harvey Awards. Dini has received nominations for the Comics' Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1999 and 2000.
In September 2006, Dini was awarded the Dragon*Con "Julie Award", bestowed for "universal achievement spanning multiple genres."
