Karen Attiah’s prominence grew in October 2018 when Jamal Khashoggi, her colleague and friend, went missing in Istanbul. As soon as she heard about his disappearance, she felt the worst had happened. Days later, she ran his column space blank with the title "A Missing Voice", and then learned with the rest of the world that he had been murdered inside the Saudi consulate.

Attiah has advocated for justice for Jamal Khashoggi, and has called for the U.S. president to acknowledge the role of the Saudi government in his murder.

Born in Texas to a Nigerian-Ghanaian mother and a Ghanaian father, Karen Attiah earned a B.A. in Communication Studies at Northwestern University, then won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Accra, Ghana. She obtained an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University before joining the Washington Post, where she writes on issues relating to race, gender, and international politics.