Kenneth Oppel is a renowned Canadian children's writer. Born on August 31, 1967, in Port Alberni, a mill town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, he spent much of his childhood in Victoria, B.C., and later in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

At around twelve, Oppel decided he wanted to be a writer, having previously considered careers in science and architecture. His early writing included sci-fi epics and swords and sorcery tales, but during a summer holiday at fourteen, he penned a humorous story about a boy addicted to video games, marking the start of his writing journey.

Oppel's first book, Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure, was written while he was a student at St. Michaels University School in Victoria. The manuscript reached the hands of renowned author Roald Dahl, who recommended it to his agent. The book was eventually published in 1985 when Oppel was 18.

He pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Cinematography and English at Trinity College, University of Toronto, and wrote his second book, Live Forever-Machine (1992), as part of a creative writing course.

Oppel's notable works include the Silverwing series, which has sold over a million copies, and Airborn, which won the Governor General's Award for children's literature in 2004 and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book awarded by the American Library Association.

He has worked as an editor at the Canadian literary magazine Quill and Quire and currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife, Felipa Sheppard, and their three children, Sofía, Nate, and Julia.