Alec Nevala-Lee was born in 1980 in Castro Valley, California. He graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in Classics, and worked for several years as an associate at a global investment firm based in New York. His first novel, The Icon Thief, was released by Signet in March 2012. A sequel, City of Exiles, will be published in December, with a final installment to follow in the summer of 2013. He lives with his wife in Oak Park, Illinois.