Oona Tamsyn King was born on 22 October 1967 in Sheffield, England, to an African-American academic father, Preston King, grandson of civil rights activist Clennon Washington King Sr., and a white Jewish mother, Hazel, a social justice activist; the family later settled in Camden, London.
King studied politics at the University of York before working as a researcher for the European Parliament and as Political Assistant to the Labour Party leader, building the policy experience that would carry her into Parliament.
In 1997 King was elected Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, becoming the second Black woman ever elected to the House of Commons after Diane Abbott, and used her maiden speeches to speak openly about the racial abuse she had experienced throughout her life.
King served as an MP until 2005, when she lost her seat to Respect Party candidate George Galloway in a bitterly contested campaign dominated by her support for the Iraq War, a defeat she later described as one of the dirtiest contests in modern British politics.
In 2011 King was appointed a life peer as Baroness King of Bow, and has gone on to hold senior diversity leadership roles including Chief Diversity Officer at Channel 4, Director of Diversity Strategy at Google, VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Snap Inc., and Chief DEI Officer at Uber, alongside publishing her 2007 autobiography, House Music: The Oona King Diaries.
- Second Black woman ever elected to the House of Commons, 1997
- Served as Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, 1997–2005
- Appointed a life peer, Baroness King of Bow, 2011
- Served as Chief Diversity Officer at Channel 4
- Senior diversity executive at Google, Snap Inc. and Uber
- Personal testimony can reshape political discourse. King's willingness to speak openly about racial abuse in her maiden parliamentary speeches brought a rarely heard perspective into the Commons.
- A political career can evolve into influence across entirely different sectors. King's transition from Parliament to leading diversity strategy at major global technology companies extended her impact well beyond Westminster.