High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965), better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment. Rowling conceived the idea for the series on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.