Alex Wagner was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Her mother, Tin Swe Thant, is an immigrant from Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma), who became a naturalized U.S. citizen before attending college at Swarthmore college. [6] Her father, Carl Wagner, was from Lansing, Iowa, and of Luxembourgish and Irish descent, and was a prominent Democratic Party political consultant who co-chaired Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.[7][8] She attended Woodrow Wilson High School[9] and graduated from Brown University in 1999, having studied art history and literature.[1][10] Wagner was raised Roman Catholic.[11]