Jeffrey Patrick "Jeff" Kinney is an American game designer and author, best known for his popular children's book series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Besides his remarkable contribution to children’s literature, he is also the creative mind behind the child-oriented website Poptropica.

Kinney grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland, and pursued his higher education at the University of Maryland at College Park. During his college years in the early 1990s, he created a celebrated comic strip named Igdoof for the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, which sparked his desire to become a cartoonist.

His success with the Wimpy Kid series is unprecedented, with 42 million copies in print worldwide as of 2010. The series was also adapted into a feature film. Kinney took on the role of executive producer for the movie adaptation. By 2009, his influence had grown so significantly that Time magazine named him among the "100 Most Influential People" in the world.

He currently resides in Plainville, Massachusetts, with his wife, Julie Kinney, and their two sons, Will and Grant. Jeff Kinney continues to work full-time as a writer and designer of online games, continuously impacting both gaming and literary worlds.