- Carl Hiaasen graduated from the University of Florida's School of Journalism in 1974. He joined the Miami Herald in 1976, and wrote for the city desk, Sunday magazine and investigative team before becoming a columnist. He retired from the Herald in 2021. Hiaasen has written more than 25 books, including "Tourist Season," "Double Whammy," "Strip Tease, "Bad Monkey," and several books for younger readers.
"Strip Tease" was the basis for the 1996 film Striptease (1996). "Hoot," his first novel for kids, was made into the feature film Hoot (2006) starring Brie Larson, Logan Lerman and Luke Wilson.
Hiaasen co-wrote the lyrics of three songs with Warren Zevon: "Rottweiler Blues," "Seminole Bingo," and "Basket Case." He co-wrote "Fish Porn" on Jimmy Buffett's final album with Buffett and Mac McAnally.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anne Henmi (qv's & corrections by A. .Nonymous)
- SpousesFenia Clizer(1999 - present) (1 child)Connie Lyford(1970 - 1996) (divorced, 1 child)
- Tends to kill off characters in his novels in very creative ways
- All of his books take place in Florida
- Many of his novels are about an environmental cause
- His adult novels tend to center around a crime that goes horribly wrong, either due to extraordinary circumstances or the criminals' sheer incompetence
- His brother Rob Hiaasen, journalist, editor and Sunday feature columnist at the Capital Gazette was killed by gunfire in that newspaper attack in Annapolis on 28 June 2018.
- When he lived in the Florida Keys, rather than drive to the Miami Herald building in Miami, he communicated with Herald headquarters by phone, fax, and modem.
- Hiaasen grew up in Plantation, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale that was, at the time, the westernmost fringe of civilization in south Florida, literally on the edge of the Everglades. As he watched Florida being settled by thousands of newcomers every year and watched his beloved background turn into asphalt, he began to write furious diatribes about the destruction of the Florida wilderness. Hiaasen partly based his popular fictional character, Clinton "Skink" Tyree, on a boyhood friend who committed suicide at age 17.
- His stepson recommended Christopher Paolini's novel Eragon to Hiaasen; Hiaasen sent it to his editor at Random House, inspiring them to republish the novel and place it into wide circulation.
- Wears a fishing hat and noise-suppression earmuffs while writing.
- Humor can be an incredible lacerating and effective weapon. And that is the way I use it.
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