laura ling

Laura G. Ling was born on December 1, 1976, in Carmichael, California, to parents who were immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan. She grew up in Carmichael and Sacramento, California, alongside her sister, Lisa Ling, who also pursued a career in journalism. Ling graduated in 1998 with a communications degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she contributed as a student analyst for the Center for Communication Policy, focusing on television program analysis for the Violence Assessment Project.

Ling’s career in journalism began as a correspondent for KCET’s SoCal Connected and as a producer at Channel One News. She co-created ‘Breaking it Down,’ a documentary series for MTV, which aired between 1999 and 2001. She later joined Current TV as a correspondent and Vice President of its Vanguard Journalism Unit, covering various international and domestic issues, from Cuba and Indonesia to shantytowns in Sao Paulo and the Mexican Drug War. Her work often focused on underreported global issues and human rights.

A significant event in her career occurred in 2009 when she and fellow journalist Euna Lee were detained in North Korea while filming a documentary about North Korean defectors. After being tried and sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison, they were pardoned and released following former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s intervention. Post-detainment, Ling continued her impactful work, hosting ‘E! Investigates’ and ‘Society X with Laura Ling’ on the E! Network, focusing on pop culture and societal topics. She also became Director of Development for Discovery Digital Networks in November 2014, and hosted and reported on series like ‘How Africa is Hacking Its Energy Crisis’ and ‘Rituals with Laura Ling’ for Seeker Stories, continuing her commitment to diverse storytelling.