Adeyemi grew up in Chicago and was not exposed to her Nigerian heritage or Yoruba ethnicity[8] as her parents decided not to teach her or her siblings their native tongue.

[11] She went on to graduate from Harvard University with an honors degree in English Literature,[12] then studied West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil, on a fellowship.

She instead set herself a year to write another book that became Children of Blood and Bone, and she entered it into Pitch Wars, a competition program in which emerging writers are matched with editors and authors to revise their work before they submit it to a literary agent.

[14] It is a young-adult (YA) fantasy novel,[15] featuring protagonist Zélie Adebola, who fights a monarchy to return magic to her people.

[21][22][23] Her second novel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance was pushed back from its initial release date of March 2019 to June 2019.

Adeyemi later stated on her Instagram that her publisher offered her two choices: June 2019 and December 2019, but she chose the former so fans would not have to wait.

[24] In December 2020, Fox's new parent company Disney announced that its two subsidiaries Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios would be adapting Children of Blood and Bone into a movie.

Since Lucasfilm had wanted to focus on its own intellectual properties Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow, the company and 20th Century Studios had allowed their film rights to Children of Blood and Bone to lapse in late 2021.

[28] In mid–December 2023, it was announced that Gina Prince-Bythewood would direct the Paramount Pictures adaptation with Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Karen Rosenfelt, and Matt Jackson as executive producers.

[32] Adeyemi made a guest appearance in the final episode of Hermione Granger and the Quarter Life Crisis.

[33] Patrick Harpin and Everett Downing, Jr., creators of My Dad the Bounty Hunter, hired Adeyemi to work on the animated all-ages series, which had a majority-Black writers room.