Freida McFadden
Freida McFadden
Author • Narratorb. 1 May 1980 · From United States- Books
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About
Freida McFadden is the pen name of a practicing American physician who specializes in treating brain injury, and one of the best-selling psychological-thriller authors of her generation.
She published under the pseudonym from her 2013 debut onward, keeping her identity hidden so her medical patients wouldn’t connect her to her fiction, and only revealed her real name publicly in April 2026.
The name itself is a medical inside joke — “FREIDA” is the acronym for the American Medical Association’s residency database, and she chose “McFadden” because it sounded funny to her. After years of writing alongside a full-time clinical career, she stepped back from regular practice in late 2023 and now sees patients only occasionally while writing full-time.
She is best known for The Housemaid (2022), an international bestseller that anchors a multi-book series and was adapted into a 2025 feature film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Her novels have been translated into more than 45 languages, and she has won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Paperback Original and a Goodreads Choice Award.
She is based in the Boston area, where she lives with her family.
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Thriller Mystery Fiction Psychological Thriller Suspense
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Frequently asked questions
No, it’s a pen name. The author, a practicing physician, wrote anonymously from her 2013 debut and only revealed her real identity publicly in April 2026.
She is a working doctor and did not want her medical patients to connect her to her thrillers, so she kept her writing and clinical lives separate.
It’s a medical inside joke: “FREIDA” is the acronym for the American Medical Association’s residency database, and she chose “McFadden” simply because it sounded funny to her.
She stepped back from full-time practice in late 2023 and now sees patients only about once or twice a month while writing full-time.
The Housemaid (2022) and its series, which became an international bestseller and was adapted into a 2025 feature film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried.
She has said she plans a novel in her head for roughly two months, then drafts very fast in an all-consuming burst before a long, meticulous edit; her husband and mother are among her early readers.
Yes. She has won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Paperback Original and a Goodreads Choice Award, and her work has been translated into more than 45 languages.