Dem Mikhailov was born on November 23, 1979, in the city of Zarafshan (the Republic of Uzbekistan). His natural aptitude for science and technology decided his initial career choice, prompting him to enter the local industrial college. Upon graduation, he worked in the mining industry specializing in separation and beneficiation of metals. Still, he didn't find much joy in the admittedly boring job. Fed up with the daily grind, Dem finally decided to radically change his lifestyle and moved to Turkey, where he spent the next twelve years working in the leisure industry, rising through the ranks from a regular entertainer to an animation team manager. Although leisure-time animation is admittedly a vocation for the young, it allowed Dem to mix with all kinds of people and later use his knowledge of human types and characters in his books. In 2012, Dem Mikhailov returned to his home town, which marked the beginning of his stellar writing career. He's rightly considered one of the founding fathers of LitRPG, and his legendary saga The Sleepless Ones (The World of Waldyra) became one of the cult LitRPG series serving as an inspiration for such bestselling LitRPG authors as Vasily Mahanenko, Dan Sugralinov, and Michael Atamanov.
