Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, Canada, Andrea Shepherd has written and danced all her life. She took her first ballet class at age 4, dabbled in everything from tap dancing to theatre to salsa, and finally fell head-over-stiletto-heels in love with Argentine tango in her late 20s.

In school, English was always Andrea’s best and favourite subject, though she was never much of a student. She started keeping a diary at age 10 and wrote just about every day for 20 years. She started writing her first novel at age 13 and finally completed one at age 51 (coming out in fall 2021).

Andrea worked at the Montreal Gazette newspaper for 19 years, starting as a clerk in the newsroom, working her way up to a copy-editing position and writing the occasional feature article. Andrea also taught a desktop publishing course at Concordia University for a decade. In 2008, she left her journalism career to pursue dance full time. Against all odds and sensible advice, she and her partner opened a tango studio, MonTango, which became one of the top Argentine tango schools in Montreal.

In 2014, Andrea partnered up her love of dance and writing when she created the blog Life Is a Tango. It gained more of a following than she ever expected and eventually became her first published book, 25 Tango Lessons.

Andrea lives in Montreal with her partner, Wolf, son, Shane, and daughter, Mia.