Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo (born April 6, 1975) is an American fantasy author. She is best known for her young adult Grishaverse novels, which include the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies. She also received acclaim for her paranormal fantasy adult debut, Ninth House. The Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series have been adapted into Shadow and Bone by Netflix, and Ninth House will be adapted by Amazon Studios; Bardugo is an executive producer on both works.

Early life and education Bardugo was born in Jerusalem, on April 6, 1975, and grew up in Los Angeles, California, where she was raised by her grandparents. She is Jewish, descended from Spanish Jews on one side, and Russian and Lithuanian Jews on the other.

Bardugo attended Yale University, graduating with a degree in English in 1997. She was a member of the Wolf's Head secret society. Before publishing her first novel, she worked in copywriting and journalism, as well as makeup and special effects.

Career Bardugo's debut novel, Shadow and Bone, the first book in the Grisha trilogy, was published in 2012 by Macmillan. Shadow and Bone was nominated for the Romantic Times Book Award and the South Carolina Children's Book Award, named an Indie Next List Book, and reviewed in The New York Times. The novel hit #8 on The New York Times Best Seller list, and was optioned for film by David Heyman and DreamWorks. The other books in the trilogy, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, were published by Macmillan in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Bardugo defines Shadow and Bone genre as Tsarpunk—fantasy with inspiration from early-19th-century Russia.

The Six of Crows duology (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom) was published by Macmillan in 2015 and 2016. It is set in the same universe as the Grisha trilogy (sometimes collectively called the "Grishaverse"). Six of Crows was named a New York Times Notable Book and an ALA-YALSA Top Ten Pick of 2016. The Language of Thorns, a collection of Grisha fairy tales and folk tales, was published by Macmillan in 2017.

Bardugo then wrote the first book in the DC Icons series, which are novelizations of DC Comics' biggest superheroes; The book is the first in the Alex Stern series. In January 2023, Bardugo published the sequel, Hell Bent. Both books received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews.

Bardugo also has essays and short stories in anthology collections such as Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life, Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, and Summer Days and Summer Nights. Her books have been translated into 22 languages and published in over 50 countries. She was ranked the sixth most popular author between 2016 and 2021 on Goodreads.

In 2023, she reached a multi-book deal with Macmillan Publishers. She signed with WME agency. She picketed for the Writers Guild of America.

In April 2024, Bardugo's novel The Familiar was published by Flatiron Books. The Familiar is a historical fantasy set in Spain during the Spanish Golden Age. The novel received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews: "Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric."

Adaptations

In September 2012, DreamWorks acquired the movie rights to Shadow and Bone with David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford producing, but the project was not realized. In January 2019, Netflix ordered an eight-episode series based on the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows book series. Bardugo made a cameo appearance in episode three of Shadow and Bone.

In October 2019, Amazon Studios announced that it would adapt Ninth House. Bardugo is set to executive produce the project alongside Pouya Shahbazian.

Personal life In the acknowledgments section of Six of Crows, Bardugo reveals she has osteonecrosis and sometimes needs to use a cane; this was a source of inspiration for one of the story's six protagonists, master thief and gang boss Kaz Brekker, who uses a cane.

Bardugo was a singer in the band Captain Automatic from 2006 to 2007. In 2022, she eloped with her partner of four years.

Bardugo is a secular Jew.