Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 to Karl Heinz and Helmi Funke in Germany. As a child, her ambition was to become a piolt or aeronaut, but when she went to Hamburg University she studied padagogy. After her her studies, she worked as a social worker for children.

She began to illustrate books, but started writing herself , with stores that would appeal to the children she had worked for a social worker. She had been writing two series of childrens books (Gespensterjäger, Wilde Hühner) before she wrote Dragibn Rider, the first of her books to be published internationally. Dragon Rider  stayed on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 78 weeks.

A second novel, the Thief Lord, soon followed, climbing to #2 on the New York Times Bestsellers List, selling 1.5 million copies.

She continued on to write Inkheart (2003), the first in the Ink series, which won the 2004 BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature award. Inkspell followed on in 2005, and it too won the 2006 BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature award. The last in the Trilogy was published in 2007 (Germany) and 2008 (English and American).

Cornelia married Rolf Funke in 1981, and they have two children, Anna and Ben. They moved from Hamburg to Los Angeles in 2005.

Rolf Funke died of cancer on 6th March 2006.