Jack MacLeod was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1932. He received a BA and MA in Economics from the University of Saskatchewan before moving east to pursue a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto. He was a professor at the University of Toronto from 1959 to 1996, gradually shifting from academic writing and editing to the more difficult field of writing comic novels including Zinger and Me and Going Grand. MacLeod and his wife Cynthia Smith divide their time between Toronto and Bracebridge, Muskoka.

Jack MacLeod is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto.