[1][2][3] Reilly was born on 2 July 1974 in Sydney, Australia, the second son of Ray (an employee at the Department of Corrective Services) and Denise, a mathematics teacher.
[4] He grew up with his brother Stephen in Willoughby, an affluent suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
He was discovered when Cate Paterson, a commissioning editor from Pan Macmillan, found a self-published copy of Contest in a bookstore.
[16] Three more of Reilly's books have been the biggest-selling Australian titles of their years of release: Seven Ancient Wonders (2005), The Five Greatest Warriors (2009) and The Tournament (2013).
[17] A Sydney Morning Herald reviewer praised Reilly's writing for its bold action, but they criticised it for straining credulity and "frequent lapses in logic.
Matthew Reilly’s Ice Station Live was performed in the Adelaide Fringe 2016 and piloted the first three episodes of a proposed full audio drama.
In early December 2011, while Reilly was in South Australia on a book tour promoting Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Natalie, who had suffered from anorexia and depression, died by suicide.
[6] Reilly subsequently cancelled his remaining book tours and announced on Facebook his intention to take a break from online communications.
[24]Reilly owns several movie prop reproductions such as a life-size statue of Han Solo frozen in carbonite from Star Wars, a golden idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a DeLorean from Back to the Future.
[1][6] A big fan of Hollywood blockbusters, Reilly hoped to one day direct a movie adapted from one of his own stories.