How to Write a Bio: Complete Guide

When in doubt, start with a standard professional bio you can always adapt it.

Example:
"Conference speaker bio for marketing professionals? Focus on marketing expertise, notable campaigns, current role. Skip unrelated credentials. Include just enough personality to be memorable."

The "So What?" test:
For each item, ask "So what? Why should the reader care?"

If you can't answer clearly, cut it.

Paragraph 1: Core identity

• Current position and company
• Area(s) of expertise
• Years of experience OR most impressive credential

Paragraph 2: Credibility

• Major accomplishments with specifics
• Previous notable positions
• Key credentials or education

Paragraph 3: Human element (optional but recommended)

• Personal interest or hobby
• Volunteer work
• Fun fact
• Location

Example (87 words):
"Dr. Marcus Williams is an emergency medicine physician at Boston General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. He's published 47 peer reviewed articles on trauma care protocols and serves on the board of the American College of Emergency Physicians. When not in the ER, Marcus coaches his daughter's soccer team."

Twitter version (158 characters):
"ER doc @BostonGeneral. Harvard Med prof. Published 47 papers on trauma care. ACEP board member. Youth soccer coach. Views my own."

Example (174 words):
"Jennifer Park is Director of User Experience at StreamMedia, where she leads a team of 12 designers creating interfaces for the company's video streaming platform used by 40 million subscribers.

With eight years of UX design experience, Jennifer specializes in designing for accessibility and has spoken at UXPA International and Interaction Design Association conferences. Previously, she was Senior UX Designer at NetFlix, where her redesign of the mobile interface increased user engagement by 34%.

Jennifer holds a Master's in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and a BFA in Graphic Design from RISD. Her work has been featured in UX Magazine and Communication Arts. Based in San Francisco, she mentors women entering tech through Girls Who Code and is an avid rock climber who's summited 30 peaks across the Western US."

Example (287 words):
"Dr. Robert Chen is Professor of Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, where he directs the Water Resources Innovation Lab. His research focuses on sustainable water treatment technologies for developing regions, work that has impacted water access for over 2 million people across 15 countries.

Robert's team developed a low cost filtration system using locally available materials that removes 99.7% of waterborne pathogens technology now deployed in rural communities throughout sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. This work earned him the National Academy of Engineering's Grainger Challenge Prize in 2023 and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.

Before joining Stanford in 2018, Robert was Associate Professor at MIT, where he established the Global Water Innovation Lab. He's published 87 peer reviewed articles, holds 12 patents, and his research has been featured in Science, Nature, and National Geographic. He serves on the advisory board for Water.org and Engineers Without Borders International.

Robert earned his PhD in Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and his BS in Civil Engineering from Cornell University, graduating summa cum laude. He's delivered keynote addresses at the World Water Forum and Stockholm Water Week, and his TED talk on democratizing clean water technology has been viewed over 4 million times.

Originally from Taiwan, Robert came to the US for graduate school and became a US citizen in 2015. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife and two children, bikes to campus daily, and makes what his students describe as "surprisingly good" dumplings at lab celebrations."

Example (448 words):
"Margaret Liu serves as Chief Executive Officer of BioGenesis Therapeutics, a role she's held since 2020. Under her leadership, the biotech company has advanced three drugs through FDA approval including a breakthrough treatment for pediatric leukemia that achieved a 76% five year survival rate in clinical trials, compared to 45% for standard treatment.

Margaret brings 25 years of pharmaceutical leadership to BioGenesis. Previously, she was President of Oncology at PharmaCorp, where she oversaw development of four cancer therapies that collectively generate $8 billion in annual revenue and serve over 200,000 patients globally. Before that, she spent 12 years at Merck in positions of increasing responsibility, rising from Clinical Trial Manager to VP of Global Drug Development.

Her career is distinguished by a focus on precision medicine developing treatments targeted to specific genetic markers rather than broad patient populations. This approach has become industry standard, but Margaret pioneered its application in oncology in the early 2000s when it was considered risky and expensive. Her persistence proved prescient; the five drugs she's shepherded to market all use precision medicine approaches and demonstrate significantly better outcomes than previous therapies.

Margaret holds an MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she was Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award recipient, and a BS in Molecular Biology from Yale University. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in Hematology Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

She's published 64 articles in peer reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and The Lancet. She serves on the board of directors for the American Association for Cancer Research, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and two other publicly traded pharmaceutical companies. In 2022, she was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine, and in 2021, she received the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor.

Margaret is a frequent speaker at medical and industry conferences and has testified before Congress on drug pricing and FDA approval processes. Her op-eds on pharmaceutical innovation have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. They have three adult children. Margaret serves on the board of Teach for America, mentors women executives through the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association, and is an accomplished cellist who performs occasionally with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble of healthcare professionals."

Example 1: Twitter/Social Media Bio (160 characters)

"Data scientist @TechFlow. PhD MIT. Helped reduce hospital readmissions 23%. Ultramarathon runner. Posts about ML, healthcare, & questionable life choices."

Example 2: Short Professional Bio (185 words)

"Marcus Thompson is Vice President of Product Development at StreamTech, where he leads teams building the next generation of video streaming technology. With 12 years of experience in media technology, he specializes in scalable infrastructure that delivers high quality video to millions of concurrent users.

Previously, Marcus was Director of Engineering at NetView, where his team's CDN optimization reduced bandwidth costs by 40% while improving playback quality. He's spoken at AWS re:Invent and VidCon about the challenges of streaming at scale.

Marcus holds a Master's in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. His work has been featured in TechCrunch and Wired, and he holds 8 patents in video compression and delivery technology.

Based in Los Angeles, Marcus volunteers as a coding mentor with Black Boys Code and is an avid home chef who experiments with molecular gastronomy."

Example 3: Standard Professional Bio (276 words)

"Dr. Lisa Rodriguez is Chief Medical Officer at HealthTech Innovations, where she oversees clinical strategy for the company's AI powered diagnostic tools used in over 400 hospitals nationwide. A board certified radiologist with 18 years of clinical experience, she bridges the gap between cutting edge technology and practical medical application.

Lisa's leadership has been instrumental in HealthTech's FDA approval process for three diagnostic AI systems, including the first FDA cleared algorithm for detecting lung cancer in CT scans technology that now processes over 100,000 scans annually with 94% accuracy, matching or exceeding human radiologist performance.

Before joining HealthTech in 2021, Lisa was Associate Professor of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she established the Medical AI Lab and published 63 peer reviewed articles on artificial intelligence in medical imaging. She also practiced clinically at Johns Hopkins Hospital, reading an average of 15,000 scans annually while teaching medical students and residents.

Lisa earned her MD from Harvard Medical School, completed her residency in Diagnostic Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and holds a fellowship in Thoracic Imaging from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She's board certified by the American Board of Radiology and serves on the editorial board of Radiology: Artificial Intelligence.

She's a frequent keynote speaker at RSNA and SIIM conferences and has testified before the FDA on AI device approval processes. Her work has been featured in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The New York Times.

Lisa lives in Baltimore with her husband and two teenage sons. She serves on the board of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine and enjoys trail running in Patapsco Valley State Park."

Example 4: Creative/Personal Bio (223 words)

"Maya Patel makes books for people who think they don't like reading.

As a graphic novelist and illustrator, she's published four books that blend visual storytelling with narrative prose, including The Quiet Storm (winner of the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel) and Between Worlds (New York Times bestseller for 12 weeks). Her work focuses on first generation American experiences, mental health, and finding yourself when you're straddling two cultures.

Maya grew up in New Jersey in a Gujarati household where comic books were considered frivolous so naturally, she became obsessed with them. After studying illustration at RISD and spending five years as a graphic designer at Marvel Comics, she published her first graphic novel in 2018. Since then, her books have been translated into 14 languages and taught in high schools across the country.

When she's not drawing or writing, Maya teaches workshops on visual storytelling at the School of Visual Arts and mentors emerging artists through We Need Diverse Books. She's spoken at Comic-Con, the National Book Festival, and TEDxNewYork about the power of visual narrative to tell stories that traditional prose can't quite capture.

Maya lives in Brooklyn with two cats who insist on sitting on her keyboard. She drinks too much chai and maintains that breakfast tacos are superior to all other breakfast foods."

Example 5: Academic/Faculty Bio (412 words)

"Dr. James Patterson is Professor of American History at Columbia University, where he has taught since 2012. His research examines the intersection of labor movements, immigration, and urban development in early 20th century America, with particular focus on how immigrant workers shaped American cities and labor policy between 1880 and 1940.

James is the author of three books: Building America: Immigrant Labor and the Making of Modern Cities (Yale University Press, 2019), which won the Organization of American Historians' Avery O. Craven Award for best book on Civil War era or Reconstruction; Bread and Roses: The 1912 Textile Strike and the Making of Modern Labor Rights (Harvard University Press, 2016); and The Tenement City: Immigration and Urban Development in New York, 1880-1920 (Oxford University Press, 2014). His fourth book, The Factory Floor: Industrial Work and Worker Dignity in Progressive Era America, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press in 2026.

His articles have appeared in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Labor History, and Journal of Urban History, among others. He has also written for popular audiences in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post about connections between historical labor struggles and contemporary worker rights debates.

At Columbia, James teaches courses on American labor history, immigration history, urban history, and historical research methods. He has directed 14 doctoral dissertations to completion and served on 37 dissertation committees. His undergraduate courses regularly fill to capacity, and he received Columbia's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2021.

James earned his PhD in History from Yale University, where he was a Predoctoral Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. He holds an MA in History from the University of Chicago and a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

He serves on the editorial board of Labor History and the executive committee of the Labor and Working Class History Association. He was elected to the Society of American Historians in 2020 and named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2019.

James grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his grandfather worked at the now-closed Allis-Chalmers manufacturing plant an experience that sparked his interest in labor history. He lives in Morningside Heights with his wife, a public school teacher, and their two children. Outside academia, he's an avid cyclist and volunteers with New York Cares tutoring adult immigrants in English."