Anne Rice was an American author renowned for her Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. Born as Howard Allen Frances O'Brien on October 4, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana, she became a celebrated author best known for her series The Vampire Chronicles. The first book in the series, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and later adapted into a successful film in 1994.

Raised in an observant Catholic family, Rice later became agnostic and eventually returned to Catholicism for a period. In the mid-2000s, she published Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, novels that explore incidents in the life of Jesus. Despite distancing herself from organized Christianity in later years, she maintained a devotion to Jesus and considered herself a secular humanist.

Anne Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors in modern history. Her work often explores themes of love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021, due to complications from a stroke.