Nigel Gray grew up in England and graduated from the University of Lancaster with a BA (English) in 1971. He completed an MA at the University of East Anglia in 1984. Gray has been a photographer, an actor, and has taught creative writing in a range of environments, including schools, universities and prisons. He has been a writing mentor with the Australia Council mentoring scheme, and has held numerous writing fellowships.
Gray has written fiction for children and young adults, children's poetry, plays, radio drama and also published in the Literacy Links readers series published by Mimosa. His work has been published in many countries and languages.
Gray is a past president of PEN (Western Australian Branch). He has won the Dickens Fellowship Award for literary criticism and the Irish Post Award for literature. His books have been shortlisted for several other awards.
Gray became an Australian citizen in 1990.