J. K. Rowling

Joanne Rowling, born in 1965 and known to readers as J. K. Rowling, is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, one of the best-selling book series in history. The idea for the boy wizard came to her during a delayed train journey from Manchester to London in 1990.

She wrote much of the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a single mother in Edinburgh, and it was published in 1997 after numerous rejections. The seven-book series that followed became a global phenomenon, sold more than five hundred million copies, was translated into dozens of languages, and was adapted into a hugely successful film franchise.

The Harry Potter books are credited with reviving children's reading on a massive scale and with building one of the most expansive fictional universes in modern popular culture, later extended through stage, film, and companion works.

Rowling has also written fiction for adults, including the novel The Casual Vacancy, and the Cormoran Strike crime series under the pen name Robert Galbraith. She has been a major philanthropist through her charitable foundation.