Cornelia Funke was born at Dorsten, Westphalia. She started as a book illustrator but then decided to write her own stories. She has written over forty scripts and books. Her most famous books include "Thief Lord", "Inkheart" and "Dragon Rider", all of these are New York Times bestselling books. Her most recent book is called "Inkspell", which is "Inkheart"'s" sequel. The books "Thief Lord" and Inkheart" are going to be movies. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children. - IMDb mini biography by: andy After graduating from high school, Funke studied pedagogy and book illustration. She then began her professional career as an educator in Hamburg. Funke also illustrated children's books, which inspired her to write. In 1993 she made her debut as an author with the book "The Wild Chickens". "No Biscuit for Goblins" and "Two Wild Little Witches" followed in 1994. Funke experienced her international breakthrough in 2000 with the children's book "Lord of Thieves", which was translated into English and 22 other languages under the title "Thief Lord". In 2003, another international bestseller followed with the fantasy novel "Inkheart", which not only deals with the child-father relationship, but also pays homage to writing and reading books. Because of her brilliant storytelling style and her great success, Funke is considered "the German Joanne K. Rowling". The author has published more than 40 books with a total circulation of over 3 million copies. In 2005, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Funke has been awarded numerous prizes for her work. For "Lord of Thieves" she received the Evangelical Book Prize in 2002 and the "Corine" Prize and the Mildred L. Batchelder Award in 2003. In 2004, "Inkheart" was awarded the Young Readers' Jury Prize in Vienna and the Fantastic Prize of the city of Wetzlar. Funke not only appears as an author of children's books, but also produces scripts for the TV series "Siebenstein". Her story "Inkheart" premiered at the Hanover State Theater in autumn 2004. In September 2005, Funke's new book "Ink Blood" celebrated its world premiere at the Berlin Schauspielhaus in the presence of the children's book author. Meanwhile, it became known that she had already sold the rights to film her successful novel "Inkheart" to Hollywood. Cornelia Funke is married and mother of two children. The family has lived in Los Angeles since May 2005.