J.K. Rowling

In 1994, Rowling was a single mother getting by on welfare benefits who spent her days in cafés writing what would eventually become Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Now she's known as the internationally bestselling author of the Harry Potter series, which was adapted into one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and a member of the Order of the British Empire. In 2012, she published The Casual Vacancy, a biting story of class and politics in a suburban English town, under the pen name of Robert Galbraith. She's since written three more novels under the pseudonym and expanded the Harry Potter world by co-authoring the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.