Best-selling novelist Jonathan Kellerman to address 2019 graduating class

USC alumnus and former professor turned best-selling novelist Jonathan Kellerman will deliver the Commencement address to the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences 2019 graduating class.

Kellerman received his Ph.D in psychology from USC Dornsife in 1974 and soon after took a position as a staff psychologist and then a clinical professor of pediatrics with USC. He began writing mystery novels in his garage on off hours.

In 1985, he had his first publishing success with the best-selling When the Bough Breaks, the first in his acclaimed Alex Delaware series. He has since gone on to write nearly 50 books, both fiction and nonfiction, several of which have been adapted into movies.

From psychologist to novelist

Kellerman was born in New York City and moved with his family as a child to Los Angeles. Despite receiving a Goldwyn Literary Prize for an unpublished novel while an undergraduate at UCLA, an award that frequently serves as a springboard to a film-writing career, he decided to enroll in the clinical psychology doctorate program at USC Dornsife.

After graduation, he became the founding director of the Psychosocial Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. He conducted research on the impact of illness on the emotional and intellectual development of children, creating new treatment protocols for supporting young patients and their families. Kellerman then launched his own private psychology practice.

His passion for writing never waned, though, and in the early 1980’s, he began typing away in his garage, drafting novels while his family slept. His debut novel, When the Bough Breaks, received both the Anthony Award and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1986.

Five best-sellers later, he decided to forego his clinical private practice to focus on writing. His novels retain a connection to his earlier career, however; his popular Alex Delaware character is a former child psychologist turned forensic psychologist who solves mysteries alongside Los Angeles Police detective Milo Sturgis.

“People ask me the difference between being a psychologist and a novelist,” he said in a 2016 interview. “As a psychologist, I was interested in developing predictive rules about human behavior. As a novelist, I’m interested in people who transgress those rules, which is why I enjoy writing crime novels.”

Kellerman will address students on May 10 at the USC Dornsife satellite ceremonies at Cromwell field on the University Park campus. 

For more information about this year’s USC Dornsife Commencement ceremonies, visit the USC Dornsife Commencement website.