Cheryl Peña was born in San Antonio, Texas to a Hispanic-American father and British-American mother. She studied art and photography at the University of Texas – San Antonio, graduating with honors in 2000. Upon the death of her twin sister in 2014, she decided to write professionally in her sister's honor. Her first novella, a suspense thriller titled The House of Wynne Lift, was published in 2021 and won the Literary Titan Gold Book Award and an Honorable Mention in the 2022 Indies Today Awards. She is also the author of Descent of the Vile, The Blood Hotel, and The Chimera Gambit.