Find an authorId based on first and/or last name
Well, I was 1 minute away from solving this, so I'll post my answer.

{% set author = craft.users.firstName(authorName.0).lastName(authorName.1).first() %}


Once the author object is set, you can access the {{ author.id }}.

Allowing me to neatly return author entries:

{% set entries = craft.entries.section('news').authorId(author.id).limit('10') %}