ALEXA TSOULIS-REAY grew up in New Zealand. She spent her adult years living in various countries, with graduate degrees in media theory and working a range of jobs: an investigator for a pornography regulator, a complaints officer at a taxi cab regulator, a recruitment consultant, and a mystery shopper. After graduating from New York University’s journalism program, she worked as a fact checker at New York magazine, eventually becoming a senior writer. She lives in Australia.