Uma Patel is a graduate of psychology from the Australian National University, and she is currently in the final year of her law degree at the same university. She grew up in Sydney, Australia, before moving to Canberra for tertiary education and has traveled throughout East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. She has previously worked for Fairfax Media in Australia and is currently partaking in a media literacy internship at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in New York.