Louis "Studs" Terkel (born May 16, 1912) is an American author, historian and broadcaster. Terkel is of Jewish decent.

Terkel was born in New York City, but at the age of ten, he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent most of his life. His father, Samuel, was a tailor and his mother, Anna (Finkel) was a seamstress. He had three brothers. From 1926 to 1936 they ran a rooming house that was a collecting point for people of all types. Terkel credits his knowledge of the world to the tenants who gathered in the lobby of the hotel and the people who congregated in nearby Bughouse Square. In 1939 he married Ida Goldberg and had one son.

He attended the University of Chicago, and received a J.D. in 1934, but chose not to pursue a career in law. Instead, he joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project, working in radio, doing work ranging from voicing soap opera productions and announcing news and sports, to presenting shows of recorded music and writing radio scripts and advertisements.

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