the_author() used as elment but being echoed

I am using the following script:

else {
$author = the_author();
	$about_query = new WP_Query('pagename=about_' . $author);
	$orig_post = $post;
	while ($about_query->have_posts()) {
		$about_query->the_post();
$about_text = get_the_excerpt().sprintf(__('<a class="more" href="%s">more &rarr;</a>', 'carrington'), get_permalink());
	}
}

to show an about page “about_”then tag on the authors name so that it’s unique for every author. It works like a charm and shows the author’s about page but it also echo’s their name above the section. This is odd. For an example visit http://www.remedychurch.org/blogs/phud see on the right hand side it shows Phud’s about section but above it it shows his name. How can I work around this?

Thanks.