Early Life
King, who is mixed race, was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire to a white Jewish mother, social justice activist Murreil Hazel Sterns, and an African-American father, political theorist Preston King. She is the niece of the medical doctor Miriam Stoppard (her mother's sister) and her playwright husband Tom Stoppard. Her cousin is the actor Ed Stoppard. On her father's side, she comes from a line of civil rights activists and successful entrepreneurs. Her paternal grandfather, the civil rights activist, Clennon Washington King, Sr. fathered seven sons.
King was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive Secondary School on Crogsland Road in Chalk Farm (borough of Camden), London, and was a contemporary of fellow Labour politicians David Miliband and his younger brother Ed. It was at Haverstock that she first showed political ambition, telling her careers teacher she wanted to become Prime Minister. Librarian work was suggested instead. She received a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from the University of York in 1990, and a scholarship to University of California, Berkeley.
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