Melissa de la Cruz was born in Manila, Philippines and says that she has wanted to be an author since she was eleven years old.^[1]

She immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 13, in 1985,^[2] and they settled in San Francisco, where she graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart High School. She went on to study art history and English at Columbia University in New York City.^[3][4] After graduation she worked as a computer consultant.^[5]

De la Cruz is married to Michael Johnston, another writer,^[6][7] with whom she co-wrote the Heart of Dread series.^[2] They and their daughter live in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California.^[8][9]

De La Cruz wrote her first full-length novel at 22 while living in New York City and working at Bankers Trust.^[5] That novel ultimately did not sell, but an editor at Little, Brown suggested she become a journalist to work on her professional writing credits.^[1][5] She started working freelance and published her first essay in New York Press in 1996. She also worked as a beauty and fashion editor until she sold her debut novel, The Cat's Meow, in 1998.^[1][5] De la Cruz has published articles in periodicals including The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Harper's Magazine.^[10] After publication of her debut novel in 2001, and layoff from the U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley, she pursued writing full-time.^[5]

Work as a fashion writer for Marie Claire was the inspiration for How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less (2003) by de la Cruz and Karen Robinovitz.^[11]

Work as a nanny and visits to The Hamptons formed the background for the 2004 to 2007 series The Au Pairs.^[12] De la Cruz has also written original novels for Disney's Descendants franchise, with the first published in 2015.

• Au Pairs – featuring three girls working as au pairs in The Hamptons, inaugurated 2004 with The Au Pairs
• Blue Bloods – vampire novel series inaugurated 2006 with Blue Bloods^[13]
• The Ashleys – featuring girls who attend an exclusive prep school, inaugurated 2008 with The Ashleys: There's a New Name in School
• The Beauchamp Family – featuring a family of witches in the Blue Bloods universe, inaugurated 2011 with Witches of East End; adapted as 2013–2014 television series Witches of East End^[14]
• Wolf Pact – spin-off from Blue Bloods, released September to December 2012 as four short ebooks
• Heart of Dread – co-written with her husband Michael Johnston, inaugurated 2013 with Frozen^[15]
• The Ring and the Crown – historical fiction about five young adults embroiled in love, politics, and magic during a London coming-of-age season^[when?]
• Alex and Eliza – historical fiction following the 18th-century romance between American founding father Alexander Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Schuyler, from 2017
• 29 – contemporary fiction featuring a South Korean teen and her path to finding love, from 2019
• Never After – inaugurated 2020 with The Thirteenth Fairy^[16]
• The Queen's Assassin – inaugurated 2020 with The Queen's Assassin^[17]

Short stories

• Mistletoe (2006) – anthology with de la Cruz a contributing author
• "Shelter Island", in 666: The Number of the Beast (2007), anthology
• 21 Proms (2007), anthology by de la Cruz
• "A Manhattan Love Story", in Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys (2007), anthology^[28]
• "Shelter Island", in The Eternal Kiss (2009), anthology
• "Code of Honor", in A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (2018), anthology, eds. Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

• Official website
• Melissa De La Cruz at Twitter
• The Au Pairs(official) Archived 2007-07-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Blue Bloods Books(official) Archived 2009-02-17 at the Wayback Machine
• Melissa de la Cruz at Library of Congress, with 76 library catalog records
• Melissa de la Cruz at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database