Ned Vizzini

Ned Vizzini was an author of young adult fiction who also wrote for television. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Vizzini began writing at a young age, and as a junior at Stuyvesant High School published an essay titled "Teen Angst? Naaah...," which later became the title of his first book, a collection of columns he wrote for the New York Press. The book was published in 2000, when he was 19.

Four years later he published his first novel, Be More Chill. His second novel, It's Kind of a Funny Story, published in 2006, tells the story of a teenager with sucidal thoughts who spends time in an adult psychiatric ward. The book was well received by critics and was made into a 2010 movie starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts. 

While continuing to write novels, Vizzini began writing for television. He wrote two episodes of the MTV series Teen Wolf and was a story editor on the short-lived ABC series Last Resort.

Vizzini, who strugled with depression, died December 19, 2013. He was 32.

At the time of his passing he was working on Believe, a forthcoming television series for NBC.