Roselyn Teukolsky was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a B.Sc. in Math and Chemistry. She immigrated to the US when she was 23, and graduated from Cornell University with an M.S. in Mathematics Education. She taught Math and Computer Science for many years, mostly at Ithaca High School in Upstate New York.

Roselyn retired from teaching in 2009. Since then she has worked full time as a writer of crime fiction. She lives in Pasadena, California, with her husband, Saul Teukolsky. A Reluctant Spy is her debut novel.