Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novelist,

slam poet A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

, and screenwriter. He wrote the novels '' Ready Player One'', '' Armada'', and '' Ready Player Two'' and co-wrote the screenplay for the

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

of ''Ready Player One'', directed by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

Life and career

Cline was born and raised in

Ashland, Ohio Ashland is a city in and the county seat of Ashland County, Ohio, United States, 66 miles southwest of Cleveland and 82 miles northeast of Columbus. The population was 20,362 at the 2010 census. It is the center of the Ashland Micropolitan S ...

, the son of Ernest Christy Cline and Faye Imogene (''née'' Williams) Cline. As a youth in the 1970s and 1980s, Cline was "addicted to video games and movies," especially ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'', the movies of John Hughes, and the tabletop roleplaying game ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''. He worked in

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

in his twenties and worked on screenwriting during his spare time.

Fanboys

Cline co-wrote the screenplay for '' Fanboys'', based on a storyline he had developed in the late 1990s while his mother was dying of cancer. Cline shot some low-budget scenes himself and shared his screenplay draft with Harry Knowles, whose connections in the film industry helped Cline get the film produced. The final film was co-written by

Adam F. Goldberg Adam Frederick Goldberg (born April 2, 1976) is an American television and film producer, and writer. Goldberg is best known as the creator and showrunner of '' The Goldbergs'', a television sitcom based on his childhood in which he is portrayed ...

and directed by

Kyle Newman Kyle Newman (born March 16, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor and New York Times bestselling author. He is known for directing ''Fanboys'', a Star Wars-themed comedy, '' Barely Lethal'' starring Hailee Steinfeld and Samuel L. Jackson for ...

. It was finally released in 2009 after reshoots, reedits, and delays. Cline later recalled that the film "changed my whole life. ''Fanboys'' is my first real original screenplay, and it got made."

Spoken word

From 1997 to 2001, Cline performed his original work at Austin Poetry Slam venues. He was the Austin Poetry Slam Champ in 1998 and 2001 and competed on the Austin Poetry Slam Teams at the 1998 Austin

National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year an ...

and the 2001 Seattle National Poetry Slam. His most popular spoken-word pieces include "Dance, Monkeys, Dance," "Nerd Porn Auteur," and "When I Was a Kid." Cline subsequently reworked "Dance Monkeys Dance" into a faux educational filmstrip, which became a popular viral video that has now been translated into 29 different languages. In 2001, Cline self-published a

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

collection of his spoken-word writing, ''The Importance of Being Ernest'', and released an album, ''The Geek Wants Out''. In fall 2013 Write Bloody Publishing published a new edition of ''The Importance of Being Ernest'' with new cover art by Gary Musgrave and new interior illustrations by

Len Peralta Len Peralta is a Cleveland-area graphic artist, illustrator, cartoonist, and podcaster who is known for zombie-themed caricatures and collaborations with nerd celebrities. His Geek a Week project, which involves weekly podcast interviews over t ...

Books

In June 2010, Cline sold his first novel, '' Ready Player One'', a book that takes place in a dystopian vision of the 2040s. The book was sold in a bidding war to the

Crown Publishing Group The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded int ...

(a division of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

).Coll, Kevin (June 21, 2010
Cool Novel Ready Player One Gets Publishing Rights and Movie Deal
fusedfilm.com The film rights to the novel were sold the following day, to Warner Bros., with Cline co-writing the screenplay. Ten months later, with the hardcover release coinciding with the paperback release, Cline revealed on his blog that both the paperback and hardcover editions of ''Ready Player One'' contain an elaborately hidden Easter egg. This clue formed the first part of a series of staged video gaming tests, similar to the plot of the novel. Cline also revealed that the competition's grand prize would be a 1981 DeLorean. The prize was awarded in 2012. The paperback is currently in its 17th printing. Cline's second novel, '' Armada'', was released on July 14, 2015, by

. In December 2015 the film rights to ''Armada'' were sold to Universal Pictures for a seven-figure sum. His third novel, '' Ready Player Two'' was announced in August 2015 and released on November 24, 2020 as a sequel to ''Ready Player One''. A film adaptation of the novel is in early development.

Personal life

From 2003 to 2013 Cline was married to author

Susan Somers-Willett Susan B.A. Somers-Willett is the author of two books of poetry: ''Quiver'' (Virginia Quarterly Review Series, University of Georgia Press, 2009) and ''Roam'' ( Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards, SIU Press, 2006). She is also t ...

, with whom he has one child. In 2016, he married poet/nonfiction writer

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz ( ; born November 26, 1978) is an American nonfiction writer and poet. Life A native of Philadelphia, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia in 1996 and received a B.F.A. in Dramati ...

, whom he met at the 1998

and began dating in 2013. Cline's all-time favorite video game is '' Black Tiger,'' which features prominently in the plot of '' Ready Player One.''

Bibliography

Novels

''Ready Player One'' series: # '' Ready Player One'' (2011) # '' Ready Player Two'' (2020) Standalone: * '' Armada'' (2015)

Short stories

* "The Omnibot Incident" (2014), short story in ''Robot Uprisings'', anthology edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams.

Poetry

* ''The Importance of Being Ernest'' (2013)

Adaptations

* '' Ready Player One'' (2018), film directed by

, based on novel '' Ready Player One''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cline, Ernest 1972 births 21st-century American novelists American male bloggers American bloggers American comics writers American humorists American male comedians American male film actors American male novelists American male screenwriters American satirists Living people Male actors from Ohio People from Ashland, Ohio Writers from Austin, Texas Novelists from Ohio Novelists from Texas Journalists from Ohio Comedians from Ohio 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Screenwriters from Ohio Screenwriters from Texas 21st-century American comedians