Bret Easton Ellis

His parents divorced in 1982. He was a part-time musician in some 80s bands and a student before his first book, Less Than Zero, was published. American Psycho was initially banned before Vintage re-released it.

He was known to be bisexual for most of his life, but in August 2005 he broke his silence about his sexual orientation and told The New York Times that his best friend and lover for six years, Michael Wade Kaplan, died in January 2004, at the age of 30.

A film about Bret, titled This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis, was made in 2000. The film is a combination of a documentary on his life as well as dramatisations of scenes from his books.