Katharine McGee is originally from Houston, Texas. She studied French at Princeton and then moved to Manhattan, where she began her publishing career at HarperCollins and later joined the Alloy Entertainment editorial team.

After three years of plotting, outlining, and generally having far more fun than anyone ought to at work, she pitched a concept called "skyscraper city," and knew immediately that it was something she wanted to write. She holds an MBA from Stanford University.