Daniel Charles Piraro (born 1958)[1] is a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for his award-winning syndicated cartoon panel Bizarro. Piraro’s cartoons have been reprinted in 16 book collections (as of 2012). He has also written three books of prose.[2]

Piraro was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and his family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma[3] when he was 4 years old. When he was in junior high school his family moved to Tulsa,[4] where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1976.[5]

He dropped out of Washington University in St. Louis.[6] He lived in Dallas and New York City for many years and currently resides in Los Angeles after separating from his wife, Ashley Lou Smith.[7] Syndicated since 1985,[8] Bizarro was appearing in 250 papers by 2006.[9]

In 2013, Piraro coined the idiom “New Artists” to represent those cartoonists who distribute their work directly onto the Internet, without the use of a syndicate or a business intermediary. [10]

In 2014, he hosted the Fox reality television show Utopia.[11]