Mary O'Hara was born in west Belfast where she attended St Louise's Comprehensive College before proceeding to the University of Cambridge.
She was awarded an Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholarship which enabled her to spend one year at the University of California Berkeley where she conducted research on press coverage of mental illness.
On return to the UK, she has worked free-lance having material published in The Guardian, the New Statesman, and Salon.
She founded Project Twist-It, a multi-platform anti-poverty initiative challenging negative stereotypes surrounding poverty.
[3] She has also been a producer on Getting Curious, a weekly podcast with Jonathan Van Ness.