E.L. James [B. 1963, London, England]
Industry Awards:
Time 100 by Time magazine 2012 The 100 Most Influential People in the World
E.L. James was born Erika Mitchell in 1963 in London, England. Her father worked as a BBC cameraman and the family lived in Buckinghamshire in South East England. After graduating from the University of Kent, where she studied history, she embarked on a career in television, rising to the level of Head of Production. In 1987 James married screenwriter and director Niall Leonard. Inspired by Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight vampire fiction series, James began her career as a novelist writing fan fiction in 2009. Set in Seattle, her Master of the Universe series appeared online in instalments and featured scenes of sadomasochism, sexual submission and bondage. This episodic drama was eventually published as the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Originally produced as e-books and limited-run paperbacks, James’ books attracted a remarkable degree of popularity, thanks entirely to word- of-mouth and online book blogs. The trilogy went viral and soon caught the attention of the mainstream media. By mid-2012, sales figures were reported to have outstripped the previous UK record holder, the Harry Potter series, and the trilogy topped the bestseller chart in the USA for a record twenty weeks. Universal Pictures and Focus Features secured the rights to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy the same year, and the first film was released in 2015. Fifty Shades Darke r, the second film in the trilogy, opens in February 2017.
Publishers Weekly 2012 Publishing Person of the Year
National Book Award (UK) 2012 Popular Fiction Book of the Year, Fifty Shades of Grey
National Book Award (UK) 2012 Book of the Year, Fifty Shades of Grey
Bibliography Fifty Shades of Grey (2011) Fifty Shades Darker (2012) Fifty Shades Freed (2012) Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian (2015)
Filmography 2015 Fifty Shades of Grey Producer
photograph: © Michael Lionstar
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