Aaron Blabey (born 1 January 1974) is an Australian author of children's books.
He is the creator of three best-selling children's series; Pig the Pug – a picture book series about a rude, Selfish, mean-spirited little dog, The Bad Guys – a New York Times #1 bestselling graphic novel series for junior readers about a gang of scary-looking animals trying to change their bad reputations and Thelma the Unicorn – a second picture book series about a plain little pony who pretends to be a unicorn.
As of December 2022, Blabey has around 35 million books in print and his books have spent over 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Aaron Blabey was born on January 1, 1974, in Bendigo, Australia.
1990
Blabey appeared in various television and film roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s and took part in several theatrical productions.
1994
In the field of acting, he is probably best known for his lead roles in two television dramedies, 1994's The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award, and 2003's CrashBurn, before retiring from performance in 2005.
Besides his 1994 award for acting in a lead role, the Australian Film Institute also nominated him in 2000 for his guest-starring role in the series Stingers.
2000
He married the actress and speech pathologist Kirstie Hutton in April 2000.
They have two sons.
Blabey supports The Alannah and Madeline Foundation, who work to protect children from violence.
From the mid-2000s, Blabey turned his attention away from acting and towards painting and created six separate solo exhibitions across Australia between 2004 and 2006.
2005
Until 2005, Blabey was also an actor.
2006
Then in 2006, Blabey turned his focus entirely to the creation of children's picture books.
2007
The first of these, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, was published in July 2007.
2008
In 2008, the book received a Children's Book Council of Australia Award in the council's Early Childhood category.
The book was also shortlisted for the CBCA's Crichton Award (given to new illustrators), The NSW Premier's Literature Awards – The Patricia Wrightson Award, and the Children's Peace Literature Award.
In 2008, the book was also included on the Notable Book list from the Smithsonian Institution.
His second book, Sunday Chutney, was published in 2008 and shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2009 and the Australian Book Industry Awards 2009.
2010
His third book, Stanley Paste, was a CBCA Notable Book in the Picture Book category in 2010 as was The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon in 2012, which was also selected as a prestigious White Raven of 2012 by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.
2013
The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon also won the Patricia Wrightson Award in 2013 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the 2013 Children's Peace Literature Award.
His fifth book, The Dreadful Fluff won the Best Designed Children's Cover of the Year by the Australian Publishers Association in 2013, which also saw the release of his critically acclaimed sixth title, Noah Dreary.
This was followed by a picture book for adults entitled Babies Don't Suck – a guide for expectant new fathers.
2014
In early 2014, Nick Cave selected The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon to record for the Story Box Library website.
In 2014 Blabey signed a three-book deal with Scholastic Australia beginning with Pig the Pug, a humorous picture book about a rude, Selfish, mean-spirited dog (pug), who always gets into arguments and even fights with his rival playmate, the friendly, polite-mannered, good-hearted Trevor (dachshund).
The book was an immediate hit in Australia and has since been translated into many languages and published around the world.
2015
Blabey's seventh children’s book, The Brothers Quibble, which deals with sibling rivalry, was chosen as the National Simultaneous Storytime Book of 2015, and was read by over 500,000 children on 27 May 2015.
It spawned a series of Pig books including Pig the Fibber (2015), Pig the Winner (2016), Pig the Elf (2016), Pig the Star (2017), Pig the Grub (2018), Pig the Tourist (2019), Pig the Slob (Blob) (2020), Pig the Monster (2021) and the final instalment Pig the Rebel (2022).
The Pig books have sold millions of copies around the world, predominantly in the USA and Australia.
The second book released from his initial three-book-deal was Thelma the Unicorn.
This picture book – about a plain little pony who dreams of becoming a unicorn – has also become a bestseller.
In combination with its sequel The Return of Thelma the Unicorn, it has sold millions of copies as well.
2015 also saw the release of the first two instalments of Blabey's best-selling graphic novel series for junior readers, The Bad Guys.
2019
The Bad Guys first reached #1 on the list on 3 July 2019.
On 22 April 2022 an animated movie adaptation of The Bad Guys from DreamWorks Animation starring Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson and Anthony Ramos premiered in the United States.
Blabey served as an executive producer on the movie with Patrick Hughes and Etan Cohen.
The movie opened at #1 at the U.S. box office and was the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2022.
In May 2019, it was announced that Netflix is developing a movie-musical adaptation of Thelma the Unicorn with Blabey again serving as executive producer.
In June 2019, it was announced that Netflix was developing an animated musical movie adaptation of Thelma the Unicorn, to be directed by Jared Hess (who wrote the script with his wife Jerusha) and Lynn Wang with animation provided by Mikros Image Montreal.
Blabey served as an executive producer on the project.
The film adaptation is set for release on May 17, 2024.
