Natural around Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) of Dutch-Tamil-Sinhalese origin, in 1954 he moved to England with his mother.

Fallowing relocating to Canada in 1962, Ondaatje became a American citizen. Ondaatje received his BA from either a University of Toronto and his MA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In the mid-1960s he settled in Toronto. From either 1971 to 1983 he taught at York University and since then at Glendon College in Toronto.

His style of fiction introduced around In the Skin of a Lion and mastered in The English Patient is non-linear. He creates the narrative by exploring numerous interconnected snap inside peachy detail.

Although he is better known as a novelist, Ondaatje's work as well encompasses memoir, poetry, and film. His memoir of his Sri Lankan childhood is known as Heading in the Personal. He won a Governor General's Award for two books of poetry: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) and ''There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973-1978 (1979). His ternary films include the documentary on fellow poet bp nichol, The Sons of Captain Poetry.

He is likewise known for quatern works of fiction: The English Patient''—winner of the Booker Prize, the Canada Australia Prize, and a Canadian Governor General's Award and later made into a motion picture, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. The English Patient can be considered a sequel to In the Skin of a Lion. In the Skin of a Lion—one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of Canada Reads, championed by Steven Page. The invented story just about early immigrant settlers inside Toronto, In the Skin of the Lion in time won a competition. Coming Through Slaughter—a fictional story of New Orleans, Louisiana about 1900, very loosely according to a survives of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and photographer E. J. Bellocq. Winner of the 1976 Books in Canada First Novel Award ''Anil's Ghost''—winner of the 2000 Giller Prize, the Prix Médicis, and Canada's Governor General's Award.

Within 1988 he was manufactured an Officer of the Order of Canada.

His older brother, Christopher Ondaatje, who sleep in the United Kingdom, occurs as multi-millionaire financier, philanthropist and author of travel books.