Reed Hepburn was raised in the countryside of Montgomery County, Indiana. In 2012 he received his Bachelor's in English, along with minors in French and Political Science, from Wabash College. After teaching English in Normandy, France for a year, he returned to Indiana and completed an M.A. in Journalism at Indiana University.

Reed enjoys playing guitar, reading, practicing foreign languages, and traveling. Some of his favorite destinations so far have been Athens, Greece; Beijing, China; and Rabat, Morocco.