Astra Taylor (born September 30, 1979)^[1] is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker, writer, activist, and musician. She is a fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation for her work on challenging predatory practices around debt.^[2]

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Taylor grew up in Athens, Georgia,^[3] and was unschooled until age 13 when she enrolled in ninth grade.^[4] At 16 she abandoned high school to attend classes at the University of Georgia; at the university she studied Deleuze and Guattari under Ronald L. Bogue.^[5] She has described herself as a "teenage Deleuzian."^[6]

Taylor enrolled at Brown University, where she attended classes for a year before dropping out. Reflecting on her decision to leave, Taylor stated "Why had I felt compelled to enroll in an Ivy League school, to excel by the standards of conventional education and choose a 'difficult' major, instead of making my own way? What was I afraid of?"^[7] Taylor completed a Master of Arts in liberal studies at The New School, though stated that she ultimately "wearied" of academia.^[8]

Taylor has taught sociology at the University of Georgia and SUNY New Paltz. Her writings have appeared in numerous magazines, including Dissent,^[9] n+1,^[10] Adbusters,^[11] The Baffler,^[12] The Nation,^[13] Salon,^[14] and The London Review of Books.^[15]

Taylor is the sister of painter and disability activist Sunny Taylor,^[16] and is married to Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel.^[17] She joined Neutral Milk Hotel onstage for a number of shows in 2013 and 2014, playing guitar and accordion.^[18] She is a vegan.^[19] She lives in New York.^[20]

Taylor was active in the Occupy movement and was the co-editor of Occupy!: An OWS-Inspired Gazette with Sarah Leonard of Dissent magazine and Keith Gessen of n+1.^[21] The broadsheet covered Occupy Wall Street in five issues over the course of the first year of the occupation and was later anthologized by Verso Books.^[22] Taylor is a co-founder of Debt Collective, a debtors' union fighting to cancel debts.^[23][24]

Taylor has resisted the label "activist" in her writing^[25] and advocates organized movement building, which she says is a necessary supplement to activism which makes it more durable and effective.

She is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America^[26] and on the Progressive International council.^[27]

• http://www.hiddendriver.com/ archived

Taylor occasionally performs with her husband's band, Neutral Milk Hotel.