Trevor Cole was born on February 15, 1960 in Toronto, Ontario. His father was a theatre and television actor.

Before turning to fiction, Cole worked as a radio copywriter, magazine editor and magazine journalist. He spent 15 years at the Globe and Mail, working first as an editor and then for the final two and a half years as a senior writer for the Report On Business Magazine. Cole left the Globe in 2000. Starting in 2001, he wrote a satirical column on business for two years for Canadian Business.

Cole has won nine National Magazine Awards, including three gold medals. He continues to write freelance for Toronto Life, Report on Business Magazine and other publications.

In 2006, Cole began the site AuthorsAloud.com, "an independent library of short, recorded audio readings by Canadian authors of literary fiction and poetry." iTunes now features an AuthorsAloud podcast, which Cole hosts.

Practical Jean, Cole’s third novel, was published in September 2010.

Cole lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Novels

• Norman Bray, in the Performance of His Life (2004) McClelland and Stewart ISBN 0-7710-2262-X
• The Fearsome Particles (2006) McClelland and Stewart ISBN 0-7710-2260-3
• Practical Jean (2010) McClelland and Stewart ISBN 0-7710-2325-1