J.K.
Rowling

Rowling first conjured up Harry Potter while waiting for a delayed train in 1990, and nearly 30 years later that idea has grown into an entertainment juggernaut. In addition to the seven Potter books published between 1997 and 2007 that spawned eight blockbuster movies, there are theme park attractions bringing the character’s wizarding world to life in Orlando, Los Angeles and, most recently, Beijing, as well as the Tony-winning Broadway play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which birthed productions in London, Melbourne and San Francisco. There’s also her “Cormoran Strike” crime-fiction novels — published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — that were adapted into a BBC series, and a third installment of her “Fantastic Beasts” franchise is due November 2021 from Warner Bros.