Suzanne Collins (born August 10, 1962) is an American television writer and author famous for the New York Times best-selling series The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogy. Collins began her career in 1991 as a writer for children's television, working as staff for several Nickelodeon shows, from where she moved on to write children's books. Collins wrote the Underland Chronicles, a series of five epic fantasy novels, between 2003 and 2007. While not as well-known as the author's subsequent Hunger Games trilogy, it has been reviewed favorably by many critics. In September 2008, Scholastic Press released The Hunger Games, the first book of a trilogy by Collins. The Hunger Games trilogy became a New York Times Bestseller, selling 1.5 million copies within the first 14 months in North America alone and staying on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than 60 weeks in a row. The Hunger Games and the two subsequent novels were adapted into films as well, with Jennifer Lawrence playing the main character, Katniss Everdeen. As a result of the popularity of The Hunger Games books, Collins was named one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2010. In March 2012, Amazon announced that she had become the best-selling Kindle author of all time. On 17 June 2019, Collins announced that the prequel to the Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, might be released on 19 May 2020. The premise is based on the failed rebellion 74 years before The Hunger Games trilogy.