[2] Harris-Perry's mother, Diana Gray, taught at a community college and was working on her doctorate when they met.

Harris-Perry left Princeton in 2011 after being denied a full professorship[6][7] for Tulane University, where she was Founding Director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project, a center for the study of race, gender, and politics in the South.

On July 1, 2014, Harris-Perry returned to Wake Forest as the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair Professor of Politics and International Affairs.

[11] In early 2013, Harris-Perry was criticized by some political commentators for statements she made on her program related to collective parenting.

[13][14][15] On February 26, 2016, Harris-Perry sent an email to co-workers that she would not host her show on MSNBC for the coming weekend, stating: "Our show was taken—without comment or discussion or notice—in the midst of an election season [...] I will not be used as a tool for [management's] purposes [...] I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head."

NBC responded that "many of our daytime programs have been temporarily upended by breaking political coverage, including M.H.P.

In the role, Harris-Perry is stated to focus on areas of race, gender, politics, and fashion, "telling the often-overlooked stories of women and girls of color".