Terry McMillan was born in Port Huron, Michigan on October 18, 1951. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, studied film at Columbia University, and enrolled in the Harlem Writer's Guild. Her books include Disappearing Acts, Mama, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, The Interruption of Everything, Getting to Happy, and Who Asked You? Her books Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back were adapted as major motion pictures.