Richard Russell "Rick" Riordan (/ˈraɪərˌdɛn/), Jr. (born June 5, 1964) is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. He helped develop the ten books in The 39 Clues series, published by Scholastic Corporation, and wrote the first book in the series, The Maze of Bones. He recently completed a trilogy that focuses on Egyptian mythology, The Kane Chronicles, and is working on The Heroes of Olympus, which is the sequel to the Percy Jackson series and focuses on Greek and Roman mythology.

Rick was raised in Texas. He graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1982 and the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, where he double-majored in English and Social Studies. Riordan taught English and Social Studies in Presidio Hill School in San Francisco for eight years. He was awarded St. Mary's Hall's first Master Teacher Award in 2002.