Derek Landy (born 1973 in Lusk, County Dublin) is an Irish author and screenwriter. He has written two screenplays that havebeen made into films -- the IFTA award winning Dead Bodies and the IFTA nominated Boy Eats Girl starring Samantha Mumba. Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script. Landy later moved onto writing the Skulduggery Pleasant novels, starting with Skulduggery Pleasant, published by Harper Collins which according to The Sunday Times paid 1 million euro for the publishing rights.The second book of the series Playing With Fire was released in 2008 while the third book in the series entitled The Faceless Ones was released on August 25, 2009 (Previously, in April, 2009, a reprint of the first book in paperback was released as Scepter of the Ancients.) Dark Days the fourth book in the series was released on the 15/02/10. The fifth book, Mortal Coil, was released in the middle of September 2010. He attended Drogheda Grammar School during his childhood years and also has a black belt in kenpo karate.