Ling's father Doug is a Chinese immigrant, born in the 1920s; her mother Mary Mei-yan (née Wang) hails from Tainan, Taiwan, and formerly served as the head of the Los Angeles office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

They divorced when Laura Ling was 4 years old and her sister Lisa was 7. Following the divorce, the two sisters were raised in the city of [[Sacramento, California]] by their father. Ling describes herself as [[Chinese American]], but a friend described her as "a true Valley girl ... about as Chinese as the cuisine at Chin Chin". She studied at [[Del Campo High School]] in [[Fair Oaks, California]]; an English teacher there, who taught both Ling and her sister, claimed that when he first knew Ling, she was already interested in following her sister's footsteps into the journalism field; he described her as "different from her sister ... and more determined, in a sense". She went on to graduate with a communications degree from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] in 1998.

On June 3, 2010, Ling gave birth to a girl, naming her Li Jefferson Clayton, in Burbank, California. Laura and her husband decided to name the baby Li, after Laura's sister Lisa, and chose Jefferson as a middle name as a tribute to former President William Jefferson Clinton.

Ling's career as a journalist began when she became a producer at Channel One News, then a documentary series for MTV. Afterward, Ling joined Current TV, where she reported on issues about Cuba, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, the West Bank, and the Amazon River, as well as about shantytowns in Sao Paulo, Brazil, gangs and homeless teens in Los Angeles, and underground churches in China. Prior to her detention, she had been reporting about the Mexican Drug War.

Ling is set to host a one-hour news show on E!. This news show is set to premiere on Dec. 8, 2010.

2009 detention in North Korea

In the last week of March, 2009, North Korea announced that two American journalists were detained and would be indicted and tried for illegally entering the country. On May 3, 2009, it was officially announced that Ling and fellow journalist Euna Lee were the journalists that had been detained, after they attempted to film refugees along the border with China. In June 2009, they were sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison for illegal entry into North Korea, and unspecified hostile acts. Many in the media called it a show trial. The United States government made diplomatic efforts to oppose this sentence before their release in August 2009.

Lisa Ling stated that when they left the United States, her sister and Lee never intended to cross into North Korea. She has also revealed that her sister requires medical treatment for an ulcer from which she is currently suffering.

Ling was pardoned along with Euna Lee, and they have both returned to the United States following an unannounced visit to North Korea by former US President Bill Clinton on August 4, 2009. Human rights activists in South Korea accuse Lee and Ling of placing North Korean refugees in danger through their actions.