David J. Peterson is a language creator and author. David came to international attention after creating the Dothraki language for HBO’s standout fantasy drama Game of Thrones. Since then, David has gone on to create more than thirty languages for over twenty television shows, movies, and video games—among them Syfy’s Defiance, Marvel’s Doctor Strange, and the CW’s The 100. His current and upcoming projects include Netflix’s The Witcher, Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, and Legendary’s Dune.
In 2014 David published an instructional manual on the Dothraki language called Living Language Dothraki. He followed that up in 2015 with Penguin’s The Art of Language Invention, a step-by-step guide on how to create a language. Coming in 2020 is a middlegrade introduction to codes and ciphers called Create Your Own Secret Language from Odd Dot.
David has been an active public speaker since 2012. In addition to events hosted at many universities, libraries, and bookstores around the world, David has spoken at TED, TEDActive, TEDxBerkeley, Chicago Ideas Week, Google, New York Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con, WorldCon, and the e.g. Conference. He’s also appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Face-Off, and To Tell the Truth.
