Felice Arena (born 10 March 1968) is a popular Australian children's author and illustrator, and occasional actor. His books have topped bestseller lists and have garnered a number of awards. He is best known for the bestselling Specky Magee series and most recently his Farticus Maximus books - a collection of humorous short stories and comic illustrations.
The son of Italian immigrants, Felice (pronounced Fe-LEE-chay) was born in Kyabram, Victoria. Arena attended La Trobe University, in Bendigo, Victoria. He graduated as a primary (elementary) school teacher but decided to pursue his love of writing.
Aside from being a bestselling author, Felice is also an actor. He played the role of Marco Alessi in Australian soap opera Neighbours for a year. He also starred in many London West End musicals, including "Hair", "Godspell" and "What a feeling" with Irena Cara.
The Specky Magee series, published by Penguin, is one of the biggest-selling children’s book series in Australia. The enormously popular books chronicles the life and times of teenager Simon Magee, an Australian Rules football champion in the making.
The series, written by Arena and his former school-mate and Melbourne Football Club star, Garry Lyon, have also been short-listed for numerous Australian Children Choice awards...including three time winner of the Young Australian Best Book Award.
There are seven books in the series, with the most recent, Specky Magee and the Battle of the Young Guns, published in September 2009. Arena and Lyon are currently writing Book 8.