Robert Tonner has spent most of his creative life designing characters, fashions, and dolls for collectors around the world.

A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Robert began his career in New York fashion, working for Bill Blass before launching his own path as an artist and designer. His love of sculpting and doll art eventually led him from Seventh Avenue into the world of collectible dolls, where he founded the Robert Tonner Doll Company in 1991.

Over the years, Robert’s dolls and characters have been sold in stores such as FAO Schwarz, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Harrods, and his licensed work has included characters from some of the world’s best-known entertainment companies. But whether designing fashion, sculpting a face, or creating a doll with an elaborate backstory, his work has always been rooted in one thing: character.

His debut middle-grade science fiction novel, Practically Human, grew from that same lifelong fascination. After years of seeing dolls portrayed as creepy or dangerous, Robert began imagining a different kind of story—one where a doll coming to life wasn’t terrifying, but deeply human.

The result is a story about friendship, family, empathy, and a very unusual doll named Em.

Robert lives and works in Kingston, New York, where he continues to design, write, and follow the next idea that refuses to leave him alone.