Joanne Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. The first author to become a billionaire from her work, her imaginative tales of a boy wizard have generated the most popular and profitable series of books and movies ever produced, and caused hundreds of millions of kids to rediscover reading in an age of texting and Twitter. From her working-class roots in rural England, she endured poverty, her mother’s untimely death, a broken marriage, and single motherhood, until the entire Harry Potter saga struck her one day like a bolt from the blue. After writing the first book in a café while on welfare and being turned down by twelve publishers, Rowling would create a franchise that rewrote the rules of how children’s books are marketed. Through seven record-setting novels, a series of hit movies over which she’s had unprecedented influence, a theme park, and countless Harry Potter products, J.K. Rowling has doggedly maintained the integrity of her vision to the benefit of herself and fans around the world. This program includes an interview with Tanya Seghatchian, the producer who found Harry Potter for Warner Bros., persuaded Rowling to approve a movie deal, and who worked personally with Rowling on the early films. Additional interviews include Michael Jacobs, VP of the American publisher who turned the marketing of the Harry Potter books into blockbuster events; Melissa Anelli, webmistress of the popular Leaky Cauldron fan site; and Jim Dale, Rowling’s choice of narrator for the American audio books.

Originally released by Bloomberg , 2011. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on November 21, 2017.

J.K. Rowling's Early Years (5:01); --Writing Harry Potter (4:03); -- Rowling's Publishing Success (5:37); -- Licensing Harry Potter (3:37); -- Rowling'sBox Office Success (4:49); -- Credits: J.K. Rowling (0:39);.