Roya Hakakian is an Iranian-American writer and public speaker. Her works appear in leading English language publications including The New York Times, New York Review of Books and The Atlantic. She serves as a fellow at Yale University's Davenport College, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a former associate producer at CBS's 60 Minutes.

A founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, she has spoken on CNN as well as in Washington D.C. for the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Her latest book, A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious, has been called a contemporary Tocquevillian account by the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.

Ms. Hakakian is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship among many other prizes and has been called one of "the most important activists, academics and journalists of her generation."

She received her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College.