Brandon Sanderson is an American author of epic fantasy and science fiction, and also a Professor at BYU. He is a 15-time New York Times bestselling author and is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time and has created several graphic novel fantasy series including the White Sand and Dark One. He created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of "hard magic" and "soft magic" systems. In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics. In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe. Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history, finishing with 185,341 backers pledging over $40 million dollars. He is strong in his faith and served a mission to Seoul, Korea for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.