Theodore Taylor III is an artist living in Richmond, Virginia with his partner Sarah and son Theo. Outside of his prolific career as a children’s book illustrator, he also works as a front-end web developer and also volunteers as a radio DJ. His artwork is inspired by his love for music, comics, animation, video games, street art and more. He is also a self-proclaimed pizza connoisseur.
In 2014 he received the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award for his illustrations in When The Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop. In 2015 the book also won the Texas Bluebonnet Award.
C Is For Country, his book with musician Lil Nas X, was a 2021 New York Times Bestseller.
Rooting For Plants: The Unstoppable Charles S. Parker, Black Botanist and Collector was included on NSTA’s 2023 list of Best Stem Books as well as NSTA’s 2023 list of Outstanding Science Trade Books.
He is represented by HG Literary.
A Picture Book Illustrator Finds Joy in Graffiti
Kirkus – 2022
Off the Wall
The Horn Book – 2022
Theodore Taylor III’s HOME
Taubman Museum of Art – 2022
Meet Theodore Taylor III
Visual Arts Center – 2021
Lil Nas X Says Children Are His Core Audience Right Now, And That’s OK
NPR – 2021
Bedtime Goes Woke
Daily Mail – 2021
A Lot Is Still So Much the Same’: Misty Copeland on Decades of Racism and Ballet
TIME – 2018
When The Beat Was Born: Hip-Hop’s Big Bang Becomes A Kid’s Book
NPR – 2014
Book Buzz: ‘Little Shaq’ series from Shaquille O’Neal
USA Today – 2014