Gaston Leroux was born in Paris in 1868. He went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Subsequently in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905, he was present at, and covered, the Russian Revolution.

Another case he was present at involved the investigation and in-depth coverage of the former Paris Opera (presently housing the Paris Ballet). The basement contained a cell that held prisoners of the Paris Commune .

He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to publish novels simultaneously and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in the United States.

Leroux died in Nice, France on April 15, 1927 of a urinary tract infection.

The Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille

• Le mystère de la chambre jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room, 1907)
• Le parfum de la dame en noir (The Perfume of the Lady in Black, 1908)
• Rouletabille chez le Tsar (The Secret of the Night, 1913)
• Rouletabille à la guerre (1914) consisting of
• Le château noir
• Les étranges noces de Rouletabille
• Rouletabille chez Krupp (1917)
• Le crime de Rouletabille (1921)
• Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens (1922)

The Mystery of William Shakespeare.The Mystery of Josh Bush

Other novels

• Le petit marchand de romme de terre frites (1897)
• Un homme dans la nuit (1897)
• Les trois souhaits (1902)
• Une petite tête (1902)
• La double vie de Théophraste Longuet (1903)
• Le roi mystère (1908)
• L'homme qui a vu le diable (1908)
• Le lys (1909)
• Le fauteuil hanté (1909)
• La reine de Sabbat (1910)
• Le fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera, 1911)
• Balaoo (Balaoo, 1911)
• Le dîner des bustes (1911)
• La hache d'or (1912)
• L' épouse du soleil (1912)
• Première aventures de chéri-Bibi (1913)
• La colonne infernale (1916)
• Confitou (1916)
• L' homme qui revient de loin (1916)
• Le capitaine Hyx - La bataille invisible (1917)
• Le coeur cambriolé (1920)
• Le sept de trèfle (1921)
• La poupée sanglante - La machine à assassiner (1923)
• Le Noël du petit Vincent-Vincent (1924)
• Not'olympe (1924)
• Les ténébreuses: La fin d'un monde & du sang sur la Néva (1924)
• Hardis-Gras ou le fils des trois pères (1924)
• La coquette punie ou la farouche aventure (1924)
• La femme au collier de velours (1924)
• La mansarde en or (1925)
• Les Mohicans de Babel (1926)
• Les chasseurs de danses (1927)
• Mister Flow (1927)
• Pouloulou (1990, posthumous)