Lauren Beukes is a novelist, scriptwriter, comics writer, TV writer and occasional documentary maker and former journalist.

She won the Arthur C Clarke Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle for her phantamagorical noir, Zoo City, set in a re-imagined Johannesburg.

Her previous novel, Moxyland is political thriller about a consumertopia corporate apartheid state where cell phones are used for social control.

The Shining Girls, her new novel, due out mid-2013 is about a time-travelling serial killer and the girl who survives his attack and turns the hunt around.

Shes also written Fairest: The HIdden Kingdom, a six part mini-series spin-off of Bill Willinghams Fables for DC/Vertigo, about Rapunzel in Tokyo, with art by Inaki Miranda.

As a TV writer, shes written for various kids shows including Florries Dragons (Disney UK) and Mouk (Millimages) and. as head-writer, co-created South Africas first half hour animated show, The Adventures of Pax Afrika that ran for 3 years on SABC3. She also wrote the pilot episode for the political satire puppet show, Z News and episodes of the Desmond Tutu travel show The South African Story.

Shes directed episodes of Pax Afrika and her debut documentary, Glitterboys & Ganglands, about South Africas biggest female impersonation beauty pageant has shown at festivals internationally and won Best LGBT Film at the Atlanta Black Film Festival in 2012.

Shes currently adapting Zoo City as a feature film for Oscar-nominated producer Helena Spring.

In 2006, she graduated with her MA in Creative Writing from UCT, but she got her real education in ten years of freelance journalism, which gave her the best possible excuse to meet interesting people and indulge in extraordinary experiences from diving with sharks to hanging out with wannabe teen vampires and township vigilantes.

She lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband and daughter.