Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author known for her works of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She gained fame for her series The Vampire Chronicles, with the first novel, Interview with the Vampire (1976), becoming a cultural phenomenon and later adapted into a successful film in 1994.

Born in New Orleans, she spent her early years in the city, later moving to Texas and then San Francisco. Raised in an observant Catholic family, she became an agnostic in her youth but returned to Catholicism in the mid-2000s. Despite distancing herself from organized Christianity later, she remained devoted to Jesus, identifying as a secular humanist.

Her literary career began in the 1970s, and she became one of the best-selling authors, with over 100 million copies sold. Besides The Vampire Chronicles, she authored works such as The Feast of All Saints and Servant of the Bones, which were adapted for television and comics, respectively. She also wrote under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure.

Anne Rice was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. They had two children, Christopher, an author, and Michele, who died at a young age. Anne Rice passed away due to complications from a stroke at the age of 80.