Daniel Silva was born in Michigan in 1960 and raised in California where he received his BA from Fresno State. Silva began his writing career as a journalist for United Press International (UPI), traveling in the Middle East and covering the Iran-Iraq war, terrorism, and political conflicts. From UPI, he moved to CNN, where he eventually became executive producer of its Washington-based public policy programming.

In 1994, he began work on his first novel, The Unlikely Spy, a surprise bestseller that won critical acclaim. He turned to writing full-time in 1997, and all of his books have been New York Times/national bestsellers, translated into 25 languages and published across Europe and the world.

He has been called his generation’s finest writer of international intrigue and one of the greatest American spy novelists ever. His debut, The Unlikely Spy, was a novel of love and deception set around the Allied invasion of France in World War II. Silva’s novels feature some of his most memorable characters, including CIA officer Michael Osbourne and international hitman Jean-Paul Delaroche.

Among Silva's notable works is the character Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and sometime Israeli secret agent. Gabriel Allon appears in Silva’s next twenty-five novels, each more successful than the last.

Silva knew from an early age that he wanted to become a writer. Born in Michigan, raised and educated in California, he was pursuing a master’s degree in international relations when he received a temporary job offer from United Press International to help cover the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. Later that year, Silva joined UPI full-time, working initially in San Francisco, then on the foreign desk in Washington, and finally as Middle East correspondent in Cairo and the Persian Gulf.

In 1987, while covering the Iran-Iraq war, he met NBC Today National Correspondent Jamie Gangel, and they were married later that year. Silva returned to Washington and went to work for CNN, where he became Executive Producer of its talk show unit, including shows like Crossfire, Capital Gang, and Reliable Sources.

In 1995, he confessed to Jamie that his true ambition was to be a novelist. With her support and encouragement, he began work on the manuscript that would eventually become the instant bestseller The Unlikely Spy. He left CNN in 1997 after the book’s successful publication and began writing full time. Since then, Silva’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages and published worldwide.