Mark Crilley was raised in Detroit, Michigan, where he began drawing almost as soon as he could hold a pencil in his hand. Graduating from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1984, he proceeded to Kalamazoo College, where he was befriended by children's book writer/illustrator (and 2001 Caldecott award winner) David Small. David's example was instrumental in suggesting the course that Crilley's writing and illustration would eventually follow. Upon graduating from college in 1988, he embarked on a series of jobs teaching English in the Far East, first in Taiwan, then Japan, and once more in Taiwan in 1993. It was while living in Japan, in the fall of 1992, that he invented his character Akiko and fashioned her first adventure, a 33-page comic-book story entitled Akiko on the Planet Smoo. Returning to Michigan in 1995, he found a publisher for Akiko in Sirius Entertainment of Dover, New Jersey. Sirius published the story as a one shot in December of 1995, with a new series to be launched the following spring. In those first years of creating comics, Crilley managed to produce new issues of Akiko at a rate of ten or more per year, and found a small but dedicated readership among fans.

Crilley lives in Michigan with his wife, Miki, and their children, Matthew and Mio. He sincerely hopes he can spend the rest of his life doing just what he's doing today: writing, drawing and speaking to young readers at schools and libraries across the nation.