Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Oren Kellerman was born September 1, 1978, in Los Angeles, the eldest son of bestselling crime novelists Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman. He studied psychology at Harvard University and playwriting at Brandeis University, and built an early career as a playwright: his 2004 play Things Beyond Our Control won a Princess Grace Award recognizing emerging theater talent.

As a novelist in his own right, Kellerman has published a run of dark, character-driven standalone thrillers, including Sunstroke (2006), Trouble (2007), The Genius (2008), The Executor (2010), and Potboiler (2012), the last of which earned an Edgar Award nomination for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.

He is also a longtime collaborator with his father: the two began co-writing when Jesse was a child, starting with a 1994 children's poetry collection, and have since built the Clay Edison series together, following a Bay Area sheriff's deputy-turned-investigator through Crime Scene (2017), A Measure of Darkness (2018), Half Moon Bay (2020), The Burning (2021), The Lost Coast (2024), and Coyote Hills (2025).

Kellerman, an Orthodox Jew, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.