Jeff Rovin is an author, magazine editor, freelance writer and columnist. Former editor-in-chief of Weekly World News, he has also been assistant editor and writer for DC Comics, editor for Warren Publishing and Seaboard Periodicals publications, as well as science and media columnist in such magazines as Analog, Omni, Famous Monsters. He was born on November 5, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York and has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for his Tom Clancy's Op-Center books.
His How to Play video game books, which were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching a total of over 4 million copies, detail strategies for dozens of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy. This series was preceded by his The Complete Guide to Conquering Video Games in 1982, and followed by his Gamemaster series that lasted until the late 90's, which began containing a violence rating for the games included in these books. With the beginning of this new series he mentions that he is 'opposed' to the forceful laws and censorship that would make game ratings required, and asks readers to write letters of disapproval to their Congressional representatives. A later series would be released by St. Martin's also called "How To Win At", covering Nintendo 64 and PlayStation games, but this time written by Hank Schlesinger.
Rovin has written encyclopedias within various genres such as: The Encyclopedia of Superheroes (Facts On File, 1985), The Encyclopedia of Super Villains (Facts On File, 1987) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals (Prentice Hall, 1991), and The Encyclopedia of Monsters (Checkmark Books, 1990), he has worked on various biographical and film books on such celebrities as Kelsey Grammer, Lana Turner, Adam West, Ellen DeGeneres, Jackie Chan, Charlton Heston, Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Pryor, Julio Iglesias, The Simpsons, and the two stars from Beverly Hills, 90210; Luke Perry and Jason Priestley, both biographies separately in one book. As well as a number of quiz and joke books.
His novels are in the fields of thriller, horror, adventure, mystery, and largely in the military field during the Force Five', and later Tom Clancy's Op-Center series, which he has now finished and his later "Unit Omega" books which he wrote under the name pen name of "Jim Grand". He then began writing further military suspense books under his own name, such as Tempest Down, Dead Rising, and Rogue Angel novels, of which Stephen Coonts calls Rovin "The best of the new generation of military adventure writers.".