Jim Schembri grew up in Melbourne's western suburbs. He was educated at Altona East Kindergarten and Primary School, then Paisley High School in Newport West, Victoria. He completed an Arts degree at Monash University in 1983, majoring in Sociology and English Literature. He commenced writing for the Melbourne Age in 1984. Other works by Schembri have been published in various children's readers' series, some under pseudonyms: Joel Tyne and Alex Dinessi.
