Paul Dini


Paul McClaran Dini is an American writer, animator, and comic book artist. He has served as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, most notably Batman: The Animated Series, and the subsequent DC Animated Universe. Dini and Bruce Timm co-created the characters Harley Quinn and Terry McGinnis.
Dini began writing on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe for Filmation Then later for Warner Bros. Animation on Tiny Toon Adventures. In addition to Batman: The Animated Series, Dini was a writer for Superman: The Animated Series, writer and co-creator for The New Batman Adventures, and writer and developer for Batman Beyond. He also co-created Freakazoid! with Timm, produced Duck Dodgers, developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog. 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. 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. 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.
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Early life

Paul Dini was born on August 7, 1957 in New York City to Patricia 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. 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

1980s

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.

1990s

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. 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 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. 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.
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, after the character's comic debut in 1993, they adapted the character into the origins story 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, with Timm, Ronnie del Carmen, and others. 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, Batman, Shazam, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League. 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.

2000s

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. He and Bruce Timm collaborated on the Harley and [Poison Poison Ivy (character)|Ivy (character)|Ivy] limited series for DC in 2004. Dini became the writer for DC Comics' Detective Comics as of issue #821 and created a new version of the Ventriloquist in #827. While Grant Morrison was starting a seven-year Batman story on the Batman title composed of long, interlinking arcs, Dini wrote a number of single-issue stories over the following year as well as two crossovers with Morrison's Batman, one focusing on the resurrection of Ra's al Ghul and another on the return of Hush. After Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." storyline in 2009, creators were moved around titles and Dini started writing two new Batman titles Batman: Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens. Streets of Gotham started and ended with story arcs about Hush while Gotham City Sirens focused on the women of Gotham; he wrote the bulk of both titles during their existence including the first and last issue of both.
In 2006 he announced that he was writing a hardcover graphic novel starring Zatanna and Black Canary. In 2004, Dini was on the writing staff for the first season of the ABC adventure series Lost. The Lost writers were awarded at the 2006 Writers Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Writing for a Dramatic Television Series. The following year he was the head writer of DC's weekly series, Countdown. Dini co-wrote a draft script for the ill-fated Science Ninja Team Gatchaman movie, which never saw the light of day and resulted in him leaving the project. Dini wrote 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 returned to Batman animated adaptations to write the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite". In the same episode, he appeared in an animated form wearing Harley Quinn's costume in a comic book convention parody scene, 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!", the teaser of which contained a team-up between Batman and Zatanna, one of Dini's favorite characters. Dini penned the storyline for the Rocksteady Studios video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, released on August 25, 2009. He wrote three episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "Cloak of Darkness," "Holocron Heist," and "Voyage of Temptation." On February 14, 2008, the first edition of Dini's column, "200 Words with Paul Dini" was released on the iFanboy site.

2010s

Dini is the main creator of the live action drama Tower Prep Cartoon Network series. On August 4, 2010, it was confirmed that Dini will be involved in Marvel Comics' upcoming animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, which aired on Disney XD in 2012. He worked on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., an animated series centered around the Hulk and his supporting cast. Dini worked with Rocksteady studios once again to create Batman: Arkham City, which was a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum. He wrote a five-issue comic series set in the game continuity. A building in Arkham City is named Dini Towers in tribute. He did not write the storyline of the third Rocksteady game in the series, Batman: Arkham Knight, due to the company not wanting to hire freelance writers for future games.
Dini wrote the script for Bloodspell, an original graphic novel starring Black Canary and Zatanna. He also performed rewrites on Disney's dark fantasy film Maleficent. His graphic novel Dark Night: A True Batman Story, based on a mugging he experienced in 1993, was published in June 2016. Dini wrote the "Actionland!" chapter in Action Comics #1000 which was drawn by José Luis García-López and Kevin Nowlan.
Paul Dini and his wife, magician Misty Lee, created an online interview feature called "Monkey Talk" on Kevin Smith's website, Quick Stop Entertainment.com. Dini and Misty Lee appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor podcast on April 6, 2016.

2020s

In September 2020, DC Comics announced that Dini would be among the creators of a revived Batman: Black and White anthology series to debut on December 8, 2020. Dini wrote the prequel to Scoob!, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, set to release through HBO Max. It was canceled in August 2022 by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Personal life

Dini and his wife Misty Lee, a magician and voiceover actress, live in Los Angeles. Their two Boston terriers, Mugsy and Deuce, were featured in "Anger Management", a 2012 episode of The Dog Whisperer, in which they sought Cesar Millan's help with their dogs' behavioral problems. Around this time, Dini began an extensive weight loss and exercise regimen which combined dog obedience training.

Screenwriting credits

Television

Head writer credits are denoted by HWThe New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle %26 Jeckle

Films

Bongo Comics

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #2, 9 Simpsons Comics #52, 193 Simpsons Comics Winter Wingding #1, 3

Dark Horse

Jingle Belle vol.2 #1–4 Jingle Belle: The Fight Before Christmas
  • ''The Bakers Meet Jingle Belle''

DC Comics

Action Comics #900, 975, 1000 Adventures in the DC Universe #3 backup story Batgirl Adventures #1 Batgirl #25 Batman vol.1 #685, vol.3 Annual #1 Batman: Arkham City #1–4, 6–7 ; #1–5 Batman: Arkham Unhinged #4 Batman Black and White vol. 2, vol. 4 #3, vol. 5 # 1 Batman: Gotham Knights #14 backup story Batman: Harley and Ivy #1–3 Batman: Harley Quinn #1 Batman: Mr. Freeze #1 Batman: Streets of Gotham #1–4, 7, 10–14, 16–21 Batman: The Adventures Continue #1–17, #1–8 Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Two #1–7 Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Three #1–8 Batman: War on Crime The Batman Adventures Annual 1–2, Holiday Special, Mad Love The Batman and Robin Adventures #1–3, 8, 17, Annual 1 Batman and Superman Adventures: World's Finest Bizarro World Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell

DC Comics/Archie Comics

Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica #1–6

Eclipse Comics

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark #1, 8, 61

Image Comics

Jingle Belle: Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein Madame Mirage #1–6 Top Cow Holiday Special/Jingle Belle: Grounded Witchblade Animated #1

Marvel Comics

  • ''Captain America: Red, White, & Blue''

Oni Press

Jingle Belle #1–2 Jingle Belle: Jubilee Jingle Belle: The Mighty Elves Jingle Belle: Winter Wingding Jingle Belle's All-Star Holiday Hullabaloo Mutant, Texas: Tales of Sheriff Ida Red #1–4 Oni Double Feature #13
  • ''Oni Press Summer Vacation Supercolor Fun Special''

Awards