Naomi Klein is a Canadian activist and author. She was born in 1970 in Montreal, Québec, and grew up in a Jewish family with Communist roots. Her parents and her grandparents were engaged in left-wing activism, including anti-war activism. As a teenager, Klein rebelled against her mother’s outspoken feminist perspective, but later cited the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre as a turning point in her political development. Before Klein attended university, her mother had two strokes that left her physically disabled. Klein became her caregiver during her recovery. The following year, Klein began university at the University of Toronto but dropped out twice and never completed her undergraduate degree. At the age of 20, she met Naomi Wolf and was inspired by her successful writing career.

Interested in making her own mark on the world, Klein pursued a career in journalism. In 1999, at the age of 29, Klein published her first book, No Logo, which critiqued consumerist culture and the exploitation of workers by large global companies. Since then, she has published several notable books, including The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything, and On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal.