Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan was born on June 5, 1964, in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up with a deep fascination for mythology, history, and storytelling. He studied English and history at the University of Texas at Austin and later earned a teaching degree, going on to spend fifteen years teaching English and history at the middle school level in San Francisco and San Antonio. It was this experience teaching mythology to twelve-year-olds that planted the seed for his breakthrough series — when he invented a story about the Greek gods living in modern America to help his son Haley, who had been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, connect with the myths he was studying.

That bedtime story became The Lightning Thief (2005), the first novel in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The book introduced twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, who discovers he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon and must navigate a world where the Olympian gods live atop the Empire State Building and mythological monsters roam the modern United States. Riordan’s genius lay in making ancient mythology feel immediate and funny and urgent, and in creating a protagonist whose dyslexia and ADHD — traits that had made him struggle in school — turn out to be markers of his heroic demigod heritage. The series became a global phenomenon, selling tens of millions of copies and inspiring films, a hugely popular Disney+ television adaptation, and a passionate fan community.

Riordan followed Percy Jackson with a succession of equally successful mythology-based series. The Kane Chronicles drew on Egyptian mythology; The Heroes of Olympus expanded the Greek and Roman mythology universe; Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard mined Norse mythology; and The Trials of Apollo returned to the Greek world. Each series has introduced young readers to a different mythological tradition while featuring diverse casts of characters, including significant LGBTQ+ representation in his later work. Riordan has also been a vocal advocate for publishing more diverse books and has mentored debut authors through the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, which publishes mythology-based fiction by diverse authors drawing on traditions including Hindu, Mayan, Haitian, Yoruba, and Korean mythology.

Riordan’s writing is celebrated for its fast-paced plots, sharp humor, and the way it makes ancient mythology feel genuinely relevant to the lives of contemporary young readers. His protagonists are frequently children who have struggled in traditional educational settings — who have been told they are somehow deficient — and his books consistently deliver the message that those perceived weaknesses may in fact be strengths. Rick Riordan is one of the best-selling authors of children’s fiction in history, and his influence on the genre of mythology-based adventure fiction for young readers is immeasurable.