Gary Kephart is a native Southern Californian. He graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Information and Computer Science and has been working as a software engineer since then, in various fields, including aerospace, mortgage, stock market and medical manufacturing. In 2001, he married Laura, and inherited two daughters in the process, who are now married and have their own children. He's had a long interest in reading, especially science fiction and fantasy, starting with Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy Boys, and continuing voraciously through Aspirin, Asimov, Anthony, Brooks, Card, Clark, Eddings, Hickman/Weis, Jordan, well, you get the point. He also worked as a street actor in Renaissance faires for 25 years. In the mid-2000's, Gary became interested in politics, starting a political club, running for office a few times, helping other candidates get elected, and serving on the Ladera Ranch Civic Council for three terms. He created the Encyclopaedia WoT because it became apparent to him, after reading about three of the books, that he couldn't keep all that information in his head, and probably few other people could as well.