Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a renowned Kenyan author and academic, celebrated as "East Africa's leading novelist." Born on January 5, 1938, in Kamiriithu, near Limuru, Kenya, Ngũgĩ originally wrote in English before shifting to his native Gikuyu. His diverse body of work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, addressing themes from literary and social criticism to children's literature.

He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright has been translated into 100 languages.

In 1977, Ngũgĩ pioneered a new form of theater in Kenya aimed at liberating the theatrical process from the constraints of the "general bourgeois education system" by promoting spontaneity and audience participation. This innovative approach sought to "demystify" theater and challenge the passive consumption of art. His play Ngaahika Ndeenda, co-written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, was a commercial success but was shut down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its debut.

Subsequently, Ngũgĩ was imprisoned for over a year and, recognized as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, he was released and fled Kenya. He has held prestigious academic positions, including Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine, and has taught at Northwestern University, Yale University, and New York University.

Ngũgĩ has often been cited as a potential Nobel Prize in Literature contender and has received accolades such as the 2001 International Nonino Prize and the 2016 Park Kyong-ni Prize. He is the father of authors Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ.