Richard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr. (born June 5, 1964) is the author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. He helped develop the 10 books in The 39 Clues series, published by Scholastic Corporation, and wrote the first book in the series, The Maze of Bones.
Riordan was born in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1982 and the University of Texas at Austin in 1986 where he double-majored in English and History. For fifteen years, he taught in public and private schools in California and in San Antonio. He was awarded St. Mary's Hall's first Master Teacher Award in 2002.
Riordan is the multi-award-winning author of the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults; his The Maze of Bones reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list on September 28, 2008. His Percy Jackson and the Olympians series features a twelve-year-old boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of an ancient Greek god. Film rights were purchased by Twentieth Century Fox and a feature film was released on February 12, 2010. Rick Riordan lives in San Antonio with his wife and their two sons. Rick Riordan has stated that he is working on a new series based upon the Egyptian pantheon, which then turned out to be The Kane Chronicles. The first book, The Red Pyramid, was released on May 4, 2010. Riordan is a regular guest of the San Diego Comic-Con International 2010.