Gillian Flynn

Flynn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood. Both of her parents were educators: her mother, Judith Ann (née Schieber), was a reading-comprehension professor, and her father, Edwin Matthew Flynn, taught film. Flynn has an older brother, Travis, who works as a railroad machinist. She has described herself as a “painfully shy” child, finding refuge in reading and writing. Her interest in storytelling was further cultivated by her father's love of horror films.

As a young woman, Flynn worked assorted jobs, including selling honey-baked ham and giving out yoghurt samples in the mall, dressed as "a tuxedo-clad cone." She attended Bishop Miege High School, graduating in 1989,and went on to earn undergraduate degrees in English and journalism from the University of Kansas.

After spending two years in California writing at a trade magazine for human resources professionals, Flynn moved to Chicago and attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she completed a master’s degree in 1997. Initially aspiring to become a crime reporter, she ultimately chose to pursue a career in creative writing.