Melina Marchetta was born in Sydney on March 25, 1965. She is of Italian descent. Melina left school at age fifteen as she was not confident in her academic ability. She then enrolled in a business school where she gained useful office skills, such as typing, which helped her gain employment with The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and later at a travel agency where she worked as a consultant. This work gave her confidence to return to school and gain a teaching degree. She then got a job teaching at St Mary's Cathedral College in the heart of the Sydney CBD until 2006. She now writes full time.

Her first novel Looking for Alibrandi was released in 1992 to much acclaim with a first print-run sellout within two months of its release. Published in 14 countries, including 11 translated editions, Looking for Alibrandi swept the pool of literary awards for young adult fiction in 1993 including the coveted Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award (Older Readers). Dubbed "the most stolen library book" the popular novel has sold more than half a million copies worldwide and was followed by her film adaptation of the same title released in 2000.

While writing the AFI award-winning screenplay Melina taught English and History full time for ten years at a city high school for boys. During that time she released her second novel Saving Francesca in 2003, followed by On the Jellicoe Road in 2006. Both novels have been published in more than 6 countries, with Saving Francesca translated into 4 languages. On the Jellicoe Road was recently awarded the prestigious 2009 US Michael Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature.

Melina's fourth novel, the fantasy epic Finnikin of the Rock, was released by Penguin Australia in October 2008. It has since won the 2008 Aurelius Award for Best Young Adult Novel and the 2009 ABIA (Australian Booksellers Industry Awards) Book of the Year for Older Children, and was recently shortlisted for the 2009 Children's Book Council of the Year (Older Readers) Award. In the USA Finnikin has received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist and Bulletin Centre for Children's Books.

Melina has also written short stories including the recent Twelve Minutes - part of the Books Alive anthology 10 SHORT STORIES YOU MUST READ THIS YEAR, along with reviews and opinion pieces for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Australian Literary Review. She has also been a writer-in-residence around the country, as far north as Thursday Island and as far south as Hobart.

Her fifth novel The Piper’s Son has just been released in Australia

Melina Marchetta wrote the screenplay for the film Looking For Alibrandi (2000), a major motion picture starring Pia Miranda, Greta Scacchi and Anthony La Paglia. The film received rave reviews and was a huge box office success, winning five awards including an AFI award and an Independent Film Award for best screenplay, as well as the NSW Premier's Literary Award and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award.