PERSON: Ronan Farrow

Reporter

Farrow is a writer, human rights lawyer, and former government official–also contributes to msnbc.com and across the platforms of NBC News.

Prior to joining msnbc, Farrow was a foreign policy official in the first Obama administration. He founded the State Department’s Office of Global Youth Issues and reported to the secretary of state as the United States’ first special adviser for global youth during the Arab Spring revolutions. He also served for two years as a U.S. diplomat focused on the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Farrow has written about human rights and foreign policy for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Writing for The Wall Street Journal in 2006, he was among the first to report on the role of Chinese investments in fueling the Darfur conflict, a piece that helped spark a major international divestment campaign. He has also appeared as a frequent commentator on major television networks and as an expert witness before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Before joining the State Department, he served as spokesperson for youth at UNICEF, working with youth groups on the AIDS epidemic in Nigeria, post-war reconstruction efforts in Angola, and the Darfur region of Sudan.

In 2008, Farrow was awarded Refugees International’s McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for “extraordinary service to refugees and displaced people.” In 2009, he was named new activist of the year by New York Magazine and was included on its list of individuals “on the verge of changing their worlds.” Forbes Magazine has ranked him number one among its “30 Under 30” most influential people in law and policy. Esquire magazine recently named him the man of his year of birth.

— msnbc.com