Claire McNeel was raised in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne by a football loving family, who placed her on the MCC waiting list when she was six weeks old. Her great-grandfather Archie played for Carlton in the early 1900s, and she is a fourth generation Melbourne Demons supporter/sufferer. Currently employed as a sessional academic, her educational background includes a Bachelor of Nursing, a Bachelor of Psychology, and a PhD in Neuroscience. Claire was awarded an Australian Government research training scholarship in 2015 and regrets that her publication history only extends to academic journals.