‏Syrie Astrahan James‏

Syrie was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Morton and Joann (Schwartz) Astrahan. Her name is pronounced "seer-ee" and was inspired by a character in a radio show that her mother listened to as a little girl. Syrie's father, Morton Astrahan, was a leader in computer science, working as a research engineer in Northwestern University's Microwave Lab and then for IBM, where he worked on the IBM 701 project and the SAGE Air defense System Project (which he documented); he also was a leader in several professional information processing and computer-related organizations, and was a founding member of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS). Syrie's brother is Melvin Alan Astrahan.

Syrie was Valedictorian of her class at Pioneer High School, San Jose, California. She graduated cum laude from U.C. Davis with a B.A. in English and Communications. Her favorite authors include Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. Syrie and her husband, Bill James, were college sweethearts. Their sons are Ryan and Jeff; Ryan is also a screenwriter.

She has sold nineteen screenplays and teleplays to Tri-Star Pictures, Fox Family Films, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX TV and the Lifetime Network. She is now writing novels. Her first work of historical fiction, "The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen," was sold at auction after a two-day bidding war between three major publishing houses; it became a best-seller and was named Best First Novel of 2008 by the Library Journal.