A native of Los Angeles, CA, Ahmet is the third of four children born to the legendary rock musician/ composer, Frank Zappa.
As a child, Ahmet struggled with a learning disability which made reading difficult. He eventually dropped out of school (with the consent of his parents) in the eighth grade.
Ahmet later went on to be a musician (he's made several albums with his brother, Dweezil), an actor, a TV show host, and more recently, a children's book author. This newfound status as a writer is somewhat of an unexpected surprise considering that he didn't even read his first book until he was twelve years old. It was a Spiderman graphic novel that captured Ahmet's imagination and changed his life. More comic books followed and his reading confidence grew until he was finally able to read his first book without pictures. After that, he was hooked and his love for reading was born.
Hoping to inspire other children (of all ages) like him/unlike him to discover the joy of reading, Ahmet wrote his first novel, The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless. In addition to the writing, Ahmet drew about 300 of the monster illustrations featured in the book. Prior to the manuscript's publication, and only a few days after it was finished, a copy was leaked and caused frenzy among the studios. In the end, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer films won a bidding war with two other studios and purchased the film rights to the book for $1.5 million—an unprecedented deal for a first time children's book author!
The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless was published in the U.S. by Random House in July 2006 and in the UK by Puffin in August 2006 and received glowing reviews. Disney is now in pre-production on the film version of the book. Ahmet still resides in Los Angeles and is writing the second instalment in the McFearless series.
***SOLD TO PUFFIN FOR A MONSTROUS ADVANCE***
***FILM RIGHTS SOLD TO DISNEY AFTER FIERCE AUCTION - JERRY BRUCKHEIMER TO PRODUCE***
***ZAPPA DESTINED TO BECOME HUGE BESTSELLER***
***THINK SPY KIDS WITH MONSTERS***
Minerva and Max McFearless set out to save their father, a renowned monster hunter, from the most loathsome, diabolical monster in the universe.
Beware! Only those who are McFearlessly brave may read from the pages of these monstrous memoirs.
This one-of-a-kind novel features full-colour illustrations throughout and offers "scientific" data on all the terrifying things that go bump in the night, as well as recipes for keeping the bloodthirsty beasts at bay. First-time author Ahmet Zappa delivers a horrifying and hysterical tale that will be sure to bewitch readers of all ages.