Jeff Lantos is a fifth-grade teacher in Pacific Palisades, California, where he often writes history-based musicals for his students to perform. A UCLA study showed that his students' retention of history is higher than their peers. He was nominated for a 2015 Excellence in Theatre Education Award from the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a degree from Brown University and has worked producing musicals on Broadway. Why Longfellow Lied is his first book.