Julia Quinn (1970 – )

She was raised primarily in New York but spent a lot of time in California as well. She writes under the pen name Julia Quinn.

Quinn graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Art History, and while studying for medical school she began writing romances, the first two of which were picked up in a bidding war between two publishing houses. Her first book, Splendid, was published when she was just twenty-four. She put off medical school to write another novel, and eventually gave up all notions of becoming a doctor to write, dropping out of her brief stint at Yale Medical School.

In 2001 she was a contestant on the game show The Weakest Link and won $79,000.

Quinn has had eighteen consecutive New York-Times best-sellers. In 2003 she was profiled in Time, a rare honor for a romance writer. Along with numerous awards, in 2010 she was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.

In 2016 she returned to Yale, to teach the inaugural romance workshop at the Summer Writers Conference.

Quinn lives with her husband, Paul Pottinger, and two children in Seattle, Washington.

On December 25th, 2020, Netflix premiered the smash-hit series, Bridgerton, based on her novels.