George R. R. Martin was born in 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey and studied journalism at Northwestern University after graduating from high school. He began writing from an early age, selling monster stories to neighbourhood children for pennies. In high school he was an avid comic book collector and began to write fiction for comic fanzines. George R. R. Martin made his first professional sale while at college in 1970 at age 21 with The Hero which he sold to Galaxy and this was published in the February 1971 issue. Throughout the 70s he wrote part-time while working as a VISTA volunteer, a chess director and teacher. He became a full-time writer in 1979 working as the writer in residence at Clarke College. In 1986 he made his first foray into Hollywood, working as a staff writer on the television series Twilight Zone, working his way up to Story Editor and then Executive Story Consultant. He then worked as a Producer and Executive Producer on Beauty and the Beast for CBS Television and was also the Executive Producer for Doorways, for Columbia Pictures Television. He has also written a number of screenplays and television episodes. He has written six novels, seven short story collections and edited many anthologies of science fiction and fantasy. Throughout his writing career he has been the winner of five Locus Awards, three Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards. He has also been the finalist for the World Fantasy Awards twice and a finalist for Writers Guild Award, for best teleplay, anthology series in 1986. His work has also been translated into thirteen languages including Croatian, Hungarian and Finnish. His A Song of Ice and Fire series, which began in 1996 with A Game of Thrones is now a blockbuster TV series on HBO. George currently lives in New Mexico, USA.