Dwayne Glenn McDuffie was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. The middle son of Leroy McDuffie and Edna (Hawkins) McDuffie (now Gardner), Dwayne attended the prestigious Roeper School for gifted children before going on to earn undergraduate degrees in both English & Physics as well as a graduate degree in Physics, at the University of Michigan. (Go, Blue!) He later also studied filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Dwayne first entered the comic book industry as an Editor at Marvel Comics, thanks to his NYU friend, Greg Wright, with whom he recreated the Deathlok character into the one in use today on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. With artist, Ernie Colón, Dwayne co-created the comedic Marvel team book, Damage Control, which is currently seeing a resurgence in movies, TV and comics.
Frustrated by the lack of diversity of both characters and creators in comics, Dwayne—together with Derek Dingle, Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis—co-founded Milestone Comics (later Milestone Media), the most successful African-American owned comic book company in history, with a mission to provide a wide array of characters, content, and creators that more accurately represent the racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and physical diversity of real life. Now rebranded as Milestone 2.0 and helmed by Reggie Hudlin along with original founders Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle, Milestone continues to thrive.
Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware—to name just a few. Throughout his career in the comic book industry, Dwayne created or co-created these and more than a dozen other series, in addition to writing stories for too many other titles to list but here are some highlights: Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Captain Marvel, Avengers Spotlight, Hellraiser, Ultraman, even The Tick, Back to The Future, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Dwayne also co-created The Road To Hell with fellow writer and Milestone editor, Matt Wayne, the inaugural Director of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics, established posthumously by Dwayne’s widow, Charlotte (Fullerton) McDuffie, with the invaluable assistance of writer, Neo Edmund.
Dwayne transitioned into the animation industry as a Story Editor and Writer on the Emmy-winning Kids WB series, Static Shock, which he co-created and for which he won a 2003 Humanitas prize. Dwayne was also a Producer, Story Editor, and Writer on Cartoon Network’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series, for which he received a 2004 Writers Guild of America nomination.
With artist/producer Glen Murakami, Dwayne redeveloped Man of Action’s Ben 10 animated series into Ben 10: Alien Force then Ben 10: Ultimate Alien—98 episodes of what became the global blockbuster franchise for Cartoon Network (now more than 350 episodes and counting!) Dwayne also wrote the animated features Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, All Star Superman, and Justice League: Doom, as well as episodes of What’s New, Scooby Doo? and Teen Titans, all for Warner Bros. For his indelible work in animation, Dwayne was posthumously presented with the Writers Guild of America’s 2011 Animation Writing Award, the first and only African-American in history to be so honored.
Winner of 3 Eisner Awards for his work in comic books; 11 Parents’ Choice Awards; 6 “Best Editor” awards; the 2009 Inkpot Award presented by Comic-Con International; a posthumous Harvey Award in 2020; and a Golden Apple Award from his alma mater, Roeper (presented to Dwayne by Apollo 13 astronaut, Jim Lovell) for his “use of popular art to promote and enhance human dignity”–Dwayne McDuffie’s life’s work exemplified both diversity and excellence.
In February 2024, the first annual Dwayne McDuffie Genius Grant Award was presented at The Roeper School to an incoming African-American student to the lower school, as Dwayne himself had been.
Personal artifacts of Mr. McDuffie’s are on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
He led by example, presciently stating, “From invisible to inevitable”–which has become the motto of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.