Thierry Culliford, born in 1955 in Uccle, Belgium, is a comics writer and the son of Peyo, creator of the Smurfs. He began working on Smurfs publications in 1983 and, after his father's death in 1992, took over the studio's series, relaunching Johan and Peewit and Benny Breakiron alongside the Smurfs. He co-writes the new Smurfs albums published by Le Lombard, with Alain Jost and Luc Parthoens among others, as well as the spin-off series The Smurfs and the Village of Girls, begun in 2017, and oversees the graphic and narrative continuity of Peyo's work.