Reavill was born in Wisconsin and educated at University of Wisconsin—Madison and University of Colorado. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter.

After working at daily newspapers in Colorado, Reavill moved to New York in 1981. Among his jobs in the early 1980s was ghostwriting for Al Goldstein, publisher of Screw magazine. Out of that experience grew his non-fiction book Smut: A Sex-Industry Insider (and Concerned Father) Says Enough is Enough. In addition, Reavill wrote several plays produced in off-off-Broadway venues throughout the 1980s.

Many of Reavill's true-crime articles appeared in Maxim from 1998 to 2004. His non-fiction books include Aftermath: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home and Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem And Save Girls' Lives, penned with his wife Jean Zimmerman.

Beginning in 2002, a writing parnership with Eric Saks yielded the screenplay for the film Dirty and several other optioned or in-development screenplays. Dirty, directed by Chris Fisher, premiered at the 2005 American Film Institute Film Festival in Los Angeles and stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., Clifton Collins, Jr., Wyclef Jean and Taboo of Black Eyed Peas.

Reavill's ghostwriting collaborations include projects with Terri Irwin, the widow of Steve Irwin (Steve & Me: Life with the Crocodile Hunter), Tiki Barber (Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond) and Jerry Heller (Ruthless: A Memoir). He and Zimmerman were credited pseudonymously as Carol Calef on Beyond All Reason: My Life with Susan Smith, David Smith's account of the 1994 murders of his sons, Michael and Alex.

The August 2005 issue of American Songwriter magazine profiled Reavill as a song lyricist.

As himself:

• Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem And Save Girls' Lives (1998)
• Smut: A Sex-Industry Insider (and Concerned Father) Says Enough is Enough (2005)
• Aftermath: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home (2007)

As a ghostwriter:

• Beyond All Reason: My Life with Susan Smith (1995)
• Ruthless: A Memoir (2007)
• Steve & Me: Life with the Crocodile Hunter (2007)
• Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond (2007)