J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, an English town near Bristol, in 1965.
Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 at Cottage Hospital in Yate, Gloucestershire. Her parents, Peter Rowling and Anne Rowling, had met while serving in the Royal Navy. The family later moved to Winterbourne, near Bristol, and then to Tutshill near the Welsh border.
The birthplace can be confused with Bristol because Yate is close to Bristol and Rowling spent part of her childhood in the surrounding region. Edinburgh is also strongly associated with her because she lived there while writing much of the Harry Potter series, but it was not her birthplace.
Rowling later studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter. Before becoming a published novelist, she worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary, including for Amnesty International in London.