Poppy Noor

Poppy Noor (born 1991) is a British columnist working for Guardian US. She has also written for other publications and appeared on television and radio news programmes. After a difficult childhood and a period of homelessness, Noor was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge and after working in local government following her graduation, won a Scott Trust bursary for postgraduate study and became a Commissioning Editor for The Guardian Housing Network. Her journalism often features themes around race, social justice and community. Since late 2019 her role at Guardian US has a focus on "social news" in New York.

Career Noor grew up in an immigrant working-class family to an English mother and Bangladeshi father. Her early life was spent in Plaistow, Newham. Her mother experienced schizophrenia and her father worked long hours as a driver, later working as a car cleaner. Noor and her two older brothers helped raise her four younger siblings; she later wrote that she has supported her family financially "for as long as (she) can remember". She was briefly taken into care, and left home at 16, sleeping on friend's sofas as she was not able to obtain her own accommodation due to not being recognised as officially homeless. After starting at a school in London Borough of Camden, She was referred to a homeless person's support team that provided bed and breakfast, and later housed in a series of hostels. She wrote in The Times in 2016 that she found it hard to adjust to life at the university, stating that "I have never forgotten the intense alienation of my first night." Whilst at Trinity, she was awarded sporting colours for football.

After graduating, Noor worked in local government in East London. She also worked as a freelance journalist. She was a reporter in the London office of The Guardian before transferring, in late 2019 to a Guardian US role covering "social news" in New York and encompassing celebrity interviews.

Noor has also written for Vice, The Times, The Psychologist and the British Medical Journal She has made several television appearances, including as a reporter for Channel 4 News in 2018.

Awards and nominations

Media appearances Year Programme Role Notes 2014 Channel 4 News participant 2017 Newsnight participant BBC Two 2017 Asian Network's Big Debate participant BBC Radio Asian Network 2017 Channel 4 News participant 2018 Channel 4 News participant 2018 Channel 4 News reporter 2018 Free thinking: are we being manipulated? participant BBC Radio 3