The man behind the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, Daniel Gerhard "Dan" Brown is an American author whose major work is based on thriller fiction. His novels revolve around themes like cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories, with his books being translated into 52 languages. Three of his books Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno, have been adapted into films.

Early life
Dan Brown was born and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire. His mother Connie Brown served as a church organist and his father Richard G. Brown was a mathematics teacher in Phillips Exeter Academy, where Brown grew up. After graduating from Phillips Exeter, the author attended Amherst College. He spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain, where he was enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville. He graduated from Amherst in 1986.

Personal life
Dan Brown married Blythe Newlon in 1997, at Pea Porridge Pond, near Conway, New Hampshire. They have a son ‎David Chinchilla.

Music career
After graduating from Amherst, Brown tried his hands on music by creating effects with a synthesizer. He self-produced a children's cassette entitled SynthAnimals, with a collection of tracks like Happy Frogs and Suzuki Elephants, making a sale of a few hundred copies. He then formed his own record company called Dalliance. In 1990, he self-published a CD targeted to the adult market entitled Perspective. In the following year, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter and pianist. He joined the National Academy of Songwriters, and participated in its events. The Academy's Director of Artist Development helped promote Brown's projects. In 1993, Brown moved back to New Hampshire. In 1994, Brown released a CD titled Angels & Demons with songs like Here in These Fields and the religious ballad All I Believe.

Movie Career
Dan Brown’s novels feature the lead character Robert Langdon. With focus on historical themes and Christianity as motifs, his novels generally tend to generate controversies. Like millions of readers across the globe, director Ron Howard, impressed with the novel The Da Vinci Code, decided to make a film adaptation of the book. This 2006 release carried the same name and starred Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina and Jürgen Prochnow. This Columbia Pictures film, launched in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, received poor reviews but turned out to be the second highest-grossing film of the year. Dan Brown was listed as one of the executive producers of the film and also created additional codes for the movie. Phiano, a song which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of the film's soundtrack. In the film, Brown and his wife can be spotted in the background of one of the early book signing scenes. The Da Vinci Code film gave the best domestic opening for the director Ron Howard. The film rights were purchased from Dan Brown.

Another Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons was adapted into a film in 2009. This was a sequel to the 2006 The Da Vinci Code and was filmed under the direction of Ron Howard, again starring Tom Hanks. This film too garnered mostly negative reviews.

After this, film makers were tempted to adapt The Lost Symbol into a film. The screenplay was written by Danny Strong but makers did not go ahead with this movie. Instead, Sony Pictures announced that it would adapt Inferno and made it a 2016 release. Inferno is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. This mystery thriller is also directed by Ron Howard, with Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon.