Anne Rice was an American author known for her Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She was born as Howard Allen Frances O'Brien on October 4, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rice was the second of four daughters of Irish Catholic parents, Katherine "Kay" Allen and Howard O'Brien.

In 1961, she married Stan Rice, a poet and painter, and they remained together until his death in 2002. They had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who became an author.

Her career began with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, which she later adapted into the commercially successful film Interview with the Vampire in 1994. Her works have sold nearly 100 million copies. Rice's literature often explores themes of love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition.

Although raised in a Catholic family, she became agnostic as a young adult. In the mid-2000s, she returned to Catholicism and published novels about Jesus, but later distanced herself from organized Christianity while retaining her devotion to Jesus, eventually considering herself a secular humanist.

Besides her work on The Vampire Chronicles, Rice authored other novels such as The Feast of All Saints and Servant of the Bones. She also wrote erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure.

Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021, at the age of 80 due to complications from a stroke.