Evan Spiegel
Early life and education[edit]
Spiegel was born in Los Angeles, California, to lawyers John W. Spiegel and Melissa Ann Thomas.[4] He grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, where he was raised Episcopalian.[5] He was educated at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, and attended Stanford University.[1]
Spiegel took design classes at the Otis College of Art and Design while still in high school and at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena the summer before entering Stanford.[1] He also had an unpaid internship in sales at Red Bull.[1] While a student, he worked as a paid intern for a biomedical company, as a careers instructor in Cape Town, South Africa, and at Intuit on the TxtWeb project.[1] Spiegel is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.[6]
Controversy[edit]
In 2014, emails sent by Spiegel during his time at Stanford were leaked to Gawker. The emails included misogynistic and homophobic comments and openly encouraged getting women heavily drunk in an attempt to convince them to have sex. The emails included comments about getting his friends laid by wasted "sororisluts", and shooting lasers at "fat girls". He was also encouraging underage drinking.[17][18][19][20]
Spiegel issued a statement responding to the controversy stating, "I'm obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I'm sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them. They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women."[21]