Ned Vizzini Dead at 32, Author of It's Kind of a Funny Story Commits Suicide

Writer is survived by his wife and son

By Alyssa Toomey Dec 20, 2013 10:11 PMTags
Ned VizziniLinda Rosier/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Ned Vizzini, the young-adult author who wrote It's Kind Of a Funny Story, which centered on a suicidal teenager and was later adapted into a feature film of the same name, has died. He was 32.

E! News confirms Vizzini's manner of death was suicide. He reportedly jumped off the roof of his parents' home in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday, Dec. 19, and, according to the NY medical examiner, "he suffered blunt impact injuries of the head, torso and extremities which are consistent with someone falling."

Vizzini's first novel, Be More Chill, was published in 2004 and two years later It's Kind of a Funny Story hit shelves.

The semi-autobiographical book about a suicidal teenager who checks himself into an adult psychiatric hospital was loosely based on Vizzini's own experiences with depression and suicide.

The novel was later adapted into a feature film starring Zach Galifianakis as a patient in the hospital who becomes an unlikely mentor to the teen (Keir Gilchrest) as well as Emma Roberts, who portrayed a recovering cutter. 

Vizzini's third novel, an alternative teen fantasy titled The Other Normals, was published in 2012, and he most recently cowrote House of Secrets—which was published in 2013 as the first novel in a new young adult fantasy series—with director Chris Columbus. The second novel in the duo's series, House of Secrets: Battle of the Beast, is reportedly due out March 25. 

The famous author, who spoke candidly about mental health and his struggles with suicide, also wrote two episodes of the MTV series Teen Wolf during the show's 2012 season.

And he'd also been working on the upcoming NBC series Believe prior to his passing, which is cocreated by mega-stars J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burke and Alfonso Cuaron.

Vizzini is survived by his wife and their son.