Tyler Whitesides was born in Washington state. The youngest of five siblings, he was raised in northern Utah where he still resides. Tyler spent much of his childhood outdoors, exploring the mountains near his house, and imagining many adventures with his neighborhood friends. He developed a love of books from a very young age, and with that came a desire to write his own stories.

Tyler attended Utah State University, where he received a Bachelors in Music focusing on percussion performance. While attending the university, Tyler got a part-time job at a middle school as a night custodian. Wandering the halls of the middle school each night sparked the ideas which eventually led to the JANITORS series. JANITORS was published in 2011, and the fifth and final book hit the shelves in 2015. 

His most recent books are The Wishmakers (featured on the 2019-2020 Promontory READS list) published in 2018 and the sequel, The Wishbreaker published in 2019.

Tyler still enjoys spending time outdoors, fly fishing mountain streams, and exploring nature. He continues to practice percussion, performing in a garbage-can drum quartet aptly called, The Jammin’ Janitors. Tyler also enjoys acting and singing, performing musicals with local theater companies. But most of the time, you’ll find him hard at work on the thing he loves most – writing!