Mark Lawrence was born in 1966 in Urbana–Champaign, Illinois, to British parents. However, he moved to the United Kingdom at the age of one. He holds a degree in physics and a PhD in mathematics from Imperial College. His early career involved working on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme.

Lawrence's work primarily involves image processing and decision/reasoning theory. Despite having no initial ambition to become a writer, a half-hearted attempt at finding a literary agent resulted in a global publishing deal. His first trilogy, The Broken Empire, received critical acclaim and is considered a groundbreaking work of fantasy. This was followed by the related Red Queen’s War trilogy, The Book of the Ancestor trilogy, The Book of the Ice trilogy, and The Impossible Times trilogy, a D&D/sci-fi work set in 1980s London.

Lawrence is married with four children and lives in Bristol. He is also the primary carer for his disabled child, Celyn. Due to his caregiving responsibilities, he does not travel to promote his books or attend conventions. Since 2015, he has been operating the annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, a literary contest aimed at increasing visibility for self-published English-language fantasy authors.