Anne Rice was born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien on October 4, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was the second of four daughters of Irish Catholic parents, Katherine "Kay" Allen and Howard O'Brien. Raised in an observant Catholic family, she became an agnostic as a young adult.

In 1961, she married poet and painter Stan Rice, remaining together until his death from brain cancer in 2002. They had two children, Michele, who tragically died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is also a renowned author.

Rice began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976. This novel, which she wrote while living in California, was the first in her famous series The Vampire Chronicles. She adapted the first volume into a successful film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Apart from gothic fiction, Rice explored erotic literature and Bible fiction, authoring works under pseudonyms Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure. Her novels such as The Feast of All Saints and Servant of the Bones have been adapted into other media including television and comics.

Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of modern times. Although her early works met with mixed reviews, she gained critical acclaim in the 1980s. During the mid-2000s, after a publicized return to Catholicism, she published fictional accounts of Jesus' life, although she later distanced herself from organized Christianity, identifying as a secular humanist.

Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021, due to complications from a stroke, leaving behind a legacy of literary excellence.