Aaron Blabey

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 fifth-highest-grossing animated film of 2022, earning $250 million worldwide, followed by a sequel in 2025 with the aforementioned cast all reprising their roles from the first film, which opened at #2 at the U.S. box office and grossed $240 million worldwide. 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. The film released onto the service in 2024. Until 2005, Blabey was also an actor. 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.

• Name — Aaron Blabey • Born — 1974 • Birthplace — Bendigo, Victoria, Australia • Occupation — * Children's author • executive producer • illustrator • artist • designer • actor • Years Active — 1989–2005 (actor) 2006–present (children's author) • Notable Works — Pig the Pug series The Bad Guys series Thelma the Unicorn series • Children — 2 • Website — aaronblabey.com

Blabey was born on 1 January 1974, in Bendigo, Australia. 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.

Blabey appeared in various television and film roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s and took part in several theatrical productions. 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.

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.

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. 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 US 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. 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 released on 17 May 2024.

2015 also saw the release of the first two instalments of Blabey's best-selling graphic novel series for junior readers, The Bad Guys. The humorous series follows the adventures of a gang of scary-looking, dangerous animals – Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark and Mr. Piranha – who attempt to change their bad reputations by performing good deeds. In January 2018, The Bad Guys hit The New York Times Best Seller list (Children's Series) and have since remained there for many weeks. After 36 weeks on the list, The Bad Guys finally reached the number one spot on 3 July 2019. As of December 2022, there are over 25 million Bad Guys books in print around the world and the series has spent over 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. On 9 March 2018 it was announced that an animated feature film adaptation of The Bad Guys was in development at DreamWorks Animation – with a screenplay by Etan Cohen. On 17 October 2019 the project went into production with a scheduled release date of 17 September 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date was pushed back to 22 April 2022. The movie is directed by veteran animator Pierre Perifel in his feature directorial debut and produced by Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley and written by Etan Cohen, who also serves as an executive producer on the project with both Blabey (the book's author) and Patrick Hughes. It stars Sam Rockwell (Mr. Wolf), Awkwafina (Ms. Tarantula), Marc Maron (Mr. Snake), Craig Robinson (Mr. Shark) and Anthony Ramos (Mr. Piranha). Whilst promoting the movie in Los Angeles in April 2022, Blabey appeared on Maron’s podcast WTF and discussed his journey to that point with Maron who voiced Mr Snake in the film. A Netflix-exclusive holiday prequel, subtitled "A Very Bad Holiday", was released on 30 November 2023, followed by a Halloween special prequel in 2024 and a prequel series premiering in November 2025. In March 2022, a month before the film was released in the US, Perifel said that he would love to do a sequel. Two years later, DreamWorks Animation officially confirmed a sequel, The Bad Guys 2, and was released in the United States on 1 August 2025. Perifel returned to direct and JP Sans, who served as head of character animation on the previous film, also returned co-direct, with the cast reprising their roles.

In January 2022, about 3 months before the release of the film adaptation of The Bad Guys, Blabey announced that a new book series called Cat on the Run was in development and it would be released in 2023. The series takes place in the same universe as The Bad Guys, and it follows the world’s #1 cat video star Princess Beautiful as she attempts to prove her innocence after being framed for a crime she didn’t commit.

In March 2025, about 5 months after The Bad Guys series ended and 2 months before the release of the last Cat On The Run book, Blabey announced an eight-figure deal with Macmillan Publishers to publish two new series with seven titles in total. The first in the two-series-deal, called Game of Pets, is set to release in fall 2026, and will follow an 11-year-old boy named Griff as he gets told by a talking axolotl named Bob that he is the only one who can save the world from a diabolical intergalactic game show. The second in the two-series-deal, called The Awfuls, will follow a top secret, experimental weapon that falls into a hands of a middle schooler.

Blabey has also worked as a staff writer at a major advertising agency and spent two years as a lecturer at a prominent Sydney design college.

As author and illustrator:

• # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — Pig The Pug — 2014 — Scholastic Australia • 2 — Pig the Fibber — 2015 • 3 — Pig the Winner — 2016 • 4 — Pig the Elf • 5 — Pig the Star — 2017 • 6 — Pig the Grub — 2018 • 7 — Pig the Tourist — 2019 • 8 — Pig the Slob (Blob) — 2020 • 9 — Pig the Monster — 2021 • 10 — Pig the Rebel — 2022

• # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — Thelma the Unicorn — 2015 — Scholastic Australia • 2 — The Return of Thelma the Unicorn — 2019

• # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — The Bad Guys: Episode 1 — 2015 (Black and White), 2022 (Full Colour) — Scholastic Australia • 2 — The Bad Guys: Episode 2: Mission Unpluckable • 3 — The Bad Guys: Episode 3: The Furball Strikes Back — 2016 (Black and White), 2023 (Full Colour) • 4 — The Bad Guys: Episode 4: Attack of the Zittens • 5 — The Bad Guys: Episode 5: Intergalactic Gas — 2017 (Black and White), 2025 (Full Colour) • 6 — The Bad Guys: Episode 6: Alien vs. Bad Guys • 7 — The Bad Guys: Episode 7: Do-You-Think-He-Saurus? — 2018 (Black and White), 2026 (Full Colour) • 8 — The Bad Guys: Episode 8: Superbad • 9 — The Bad Guys: Episode 9: The Big Bad Wolf — 2019 • 10 — The Bad Guys: Episode 10: The Baddest Day Ever • 11 — The Bad Guys: Episode 11: Dawn of the Underlord — 2020 • 12 — The Bad Guys: Episode 12: The One?! • 13 — The Bad Guys: Episode 13: Cut to the Chase — 2021 • 14 — The Bad Guys: Episode 14: They're Bee-hind You! • 15 — The Bad Guys: Episode 15: Open Wide and Say Arrrgh! — 2022 • 16 — The Bad Guys: Episode 16: The Others?! • 17 — The Bad Guys: Episode 17: Let the Games Begin! — 2023 • 18 — The Bad Guys: Episode 18: Look Who's Talking! • 19 — The Bad Guys: Episode 19: The Serpent and the Beast — 2024 • 20 — The Bad Guys: Episode 20: One Last Thing

Cat on the Run is a spinoff to The Bad Guys. • # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — Cat on the Run Episode 1: Cat of Death! — 2023 — Scholastic Australia • 2 — Cat on the Run Episode 2: Cucumber Madness! — 2024 • 3 — Cat on the Run Episode 3: Hidden Layers! — 2025

• # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — Game of Pets Book 1: The Boy Who Knew Too Much — 29 September 2026 — MacMillan Publishers (UK and Australia) Odd Dot (US) • 1 — Game of Pets Book 2: Farmageddon — 1 June 2027

• # — Title — First published — Publisher • 1 — Untitled first The Awfuls book — TBA — Macmillan Publishers (UK and Australia) Odd Dot (US)

• Title — First published — Publisher • Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley — 2007 — Penguin Books Australia • Sunday Chutney — 2008 • Stanley Paste — 2009 • The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon — 2011 • The Dreadful Fluff — 2012 • Noah Dreary — 2013 • The Brothers Quibble — 2014 • Babies Don't Suck — Pan Books Australia • Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas — 2015 — Scholastic Australia • I Need A Hug • Don't Call Me Bear — 2016 • Busting! — 2017 • Guff — Penguin Books Australia

• Year — Film — Role — Notes • 1991; 1995; 1996 — G.P. — Sean Bartells / Jim Mayhew / Sean — TV series, 3 episodes • 1993 — Phoenix — TV series, season 2, episode 4: "The Return" • 1994 — Blue Heelers — Robbie Davies — TV series, season 1, episode 42: "The First Stone" • The Damnation of Harvey McHugh — Harvey McHugh — Miniseries, 13 episodes, Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Drama • 1995 — Halifax f.p. — Tony Lobianco — TV series, season 1, episode 2: "Words Without Music" • The Man from Snowy River — Jimmy Wilks — TV series, season 2, episode 12: "The Recruit" • 1996 — Twisted Tales — Nick — TV series, season 1, episode 1: "The Confident Man" • 1996–1997 — Medivac — Danny Haywood — TV series, 2 episodes • 1997 — Fallen Angels — Jim Phelps — TV series, season 1, episode 6: "All Things Bright and Beautiful" • Wildside — Warren Beckett — TV series, 4 episodes • 1997; 1999 — Water Rats — Doug Porter / Gary Travis — TV series, 4 episodes • 1998 — Day of the Roses — Dr John White — Miniseries, 2 episodes • 1999 — All Saints — Scott Lacey — TV series, season 2, episode 36: "The Ties That Bind" • 2000 — Grass Roots — Sandy Maxwell — TV series, season 1, episode 5: "January to April" • Stingers — Michael Callum — TV series, season 3, episode 17: "Second Chance" Nominated for Australian Film Institute Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Television Drama Series • 2003 — CrashBurn — Ben Harfield — TV series, season 1, 13 episodes • 2004 — Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story — Kirkham — Miniseries, 2 episodes • 2005 — MDA — Luke Rodman — TV series, 4 episodes