Erika Leonard, birth name Erika Mitchell (born March 7, 1963), better known by the pseudonym E. L. James, is the British author of the bestselling erotic romance novels trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. The combined novels have sold over 35 million copies in the United States, and over 70 million copies worldwide, setting the record as the fastest selling paperback of all time. In 2012, Time magazine named her one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People." In 1963, Leonard was born Erika Mitchell, to a Chilean mother and Scottish father, a BBC cameraman. Raised in Buckinghamshire, Leonard read history at the University of Kent, before becoming a studio manager’s assistant at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. James initially wrote fanfiction under the pen name "Snowqueens Icedragon", with her most notable work being a Twilight fanfiction that eventually developed into Fifty Shades of Grey. James has spoken of her shock.. …