Dav Pilkey

David Murray "Dav" Pilkey, Jr. (born March 4, 1966) is an American author and illustrator of children's literature. Pilkey is the author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants book series. He also uses the pen names George Beard and Harold Hutchins, which are the names of two of the main characters in the aforementioned series.

Biography

Pilkey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Barbara and David Pilkey, Sr. He has one older sister. In elementary school in Elyria, Ohio, he was diagnosed with (and still suffers from) ADHD and dyslexia. Pilkey was frequently reprimanded for his behavior in class and thus usually sat at a desk in the school hallway, where he created the Captain Underpants character. Pilkey entered his first book, World War Won, in a national competition for student authors and won in his age category. The book's publication in 1987 was included in the award.

The atypical spelling of his first name came from a period of employment in a Pizza Hut, when the "e" was omitted from his nametag. Even though it is spelled D-A-V, it is pronounced "Dave" .