Rob Thomas (born August 15, 1965 in Sunnyside, Washington) is an American author, producer, and screenwriter, best known as the author of the 1996 novel Rats Saw God and creator of the television program Veronica Mars.
Thomas graduated from San Marcos High School in 1983 and went to Texas Christian University on a football scholarship. He eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 with a BA in History.
Before he began writing novels for young adults, Thomas taught high-school journalism at John Marshall High School in San Antonio, Texas, and advised the University of Texas at Austin student magazine. From August 1993 to June 1995 he worked for Channel One News, an experience which informed his novel 1998 Satellite Down. Thomas was a member of three Austin, Texas bands — Public Bulletin, Hey Zeus, and Black Irish — from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.