J.K.

Rowling
BRITISH AUTHOR
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

J.K. Rowling, in full Joanne Kathleen Rowling, (born July 31, 1965,

Yate, near Bristol, England), British author, creator of the popular and
critically acclaimed Harry Potter series, about a young sorcerer in
training.

After graduating from the University of Exeter in 1986, Rowling began

working for Amnesty International in London, where she started to write
the Harry Potter adventures. In the early 1990s she traveled to Portugal to teach English as a
foreign language, but, after a brief marriage and the birth of her daughter, she returned to the
United Kingdom, settling in Edinburgh. Living on public assistance between stints as a French
teacher, she continued to write.

The first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997; also
published as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), was released under the name J.K.
Rowling. (Her publisher recommended a gender-neutral pen name; born Joanne Rowling, she
used J.K., adding the middle name Kathleen.) The book was an immediate success, appealing
to both children, who were its intended audience, and adults. Featuring vivid descriptions and
an imaginative story line, it followed the adventures of the unlikely hero Harry Potter, a lonely
orphan who discovers that he is actually a wizard and enrolls in the Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book received numerous awards, including the British Book
Award. Succeeding volumes—Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)—also
were best sellers, available in more than 200 countries and some 60 languages. The seventh
and final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in 2007.

The Harry Potter series sparked great enthusiasm among children and was credited with
generating a new interest in reading. Film versions of the books were released in 2001–11 and
became some of the top-grossing movies in the world. In addition, Rowling wrote the
companion volumes Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (2001), which was adapted into a
film series (2016, 2018) that featured screenplays by Rowling; Quidditch Through the
Ages (2001); and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)—all of which originated as books read
by Harry Potter and his friends within the fictional world of the series. Proceeds from their
sales were donated to charity. She later cowrote a story that became the basis for
the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which premiered in 2016 and was a critical and
commercial success, winning an unprecedented nine Olivier Awards, including best new play.
In the production, Harry is a husband and father but is still struggling with his past, while his
son Albus must contend with his father’s legacy. A book version of the script, which was
advertised as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, was published in 2016. Two years
later the play transferred to Broadway, and in 2018 it won six Tony Awards, including best new
play.

Rowling made her first foray into adult fiction with The Casual Vacancy (2012; TV miniseries
2015), a contemporary social satire set in a small English town. In 2013 it was revealed that
the author had penned the crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling, using the pseudonym Robert
Galbraith. The Silkworm—the second book in the series, which centred on the detective
Cormoran Strike, a down-on-his-luck war veteran—was released in 2014. Later entries in the
series included Career of Evil (2015) and Lethal White (2018). A television series based on the
books premiered in the United Kingdom in 2017 and in the United States the following year.

1
Rowling was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001. In 2009 she
was named a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.