1. Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the country's first female prime minister, attorney general, and Leader of the Opposition, the first woman to chair the Commonwealth of Nations and the first woman of Indian origin to be a prime minister of a country outside of India and the wider subcontinent.
In 2011, Persad-Bissessar was named the thirteenth most influential female leader around the world by Time magazine.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar held the premiership from May 2010 to September 2015, where she was the leader of the People's Partnership - a political coalition of centre and center-left wing parties that governed the country.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar Susheila Persad was born in Siparia in southern Trinidad to Lilraj and Rita Persad, both Hindus of Indian descent.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar's father was a bookkeeper and worked in the accounting department of Texaco, while her mother was a maid and labourer in the cocoa fields, who eventually saved up to own and operate a roti shop.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar's paternal grandmother, Soomintra, was a market seller who was a founding member of the Saraswati Prakash Mandir, a Hindu temple at Boodoo Trace in Penal, and she had organized a ladies Indian singing and Hindu prayer group, as well as being an elder counsellor who helped those in need.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said that she credits her mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmother as setting examples for her in feminism and paving the way for her.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar had one brother and three sisters, her brother, Roland, and eldest sister, Shirley, are deceased and her other two sisters are Vidwatie Newton who lived in England and Sally Ahamad who lives in New York.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was born into a Brahmin Hindu Indian family.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar's ancestors emigrated in the 1880s from India to Trinidad through the Indian indenture system.
In 2012, Kamla Persad-Bissessar visited her paternal great-grandfather's village on a state visit to India.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar spent her early childhood living in a joint family with her parents and paternal grandparents at Boodoo Trace in Penal, where she attended the Mohess Road Hindu School.
When Kamla Persad-Bissessar was sixteen, she wanted to go to the United Kingdom to further her studies, but her traditional father and uncles insisted she stayed in Trinidad and Tobago.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar then left Trinidad at the age of seventeen, in August 1969, to attended Norwood Technical College in West Norwood, London, England.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the youngest lecturer, at the age of twenty-five, to the ever teach at the University of the West Indies.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Columbia University to do research leading to a PhD but she opted to study law instead.
In 1987 Kamla Persad-Bissessar entered politics serving as an alderwoman on the Saint Patrick County Council until 1991.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar then became an opposition senator from 1994 until 1995.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar then became a Member of Parliament for the Siparia constituency in 1995 and has been ever since.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar served as Attorney General in 1995 until Ramesh Maharaj was able to disassociate himself from ongoing cases and again in 2001 after Maharaj left the party.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was appointed Leader of the Opposition on 26 April 2006.
On 24 January 2010, Kamla Persad-Bissessar was elected political leader of the UNC, emerging victorious over the party's founder and former prime minister, Basdeo Panday.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was formally appointed opposition leader on 25 February 2010, having gained the support of a majority of UNC MPs.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar took office as prime minister after the victory of the People's Partnership in the general election of 24 May 2010, defeating the previous government of the People's National Movement, which had called an early election.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the first female prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago and is the first female Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was succeeded as Chairperson-in-Office by Julia Gillard with the opening of the 2011 CHOGM on 28 October 2011.
On 21 September 2015, Kamla Persad-Bissessar was appointed leader of the opposition by president Anthony Carmona after her party was defeated at the polls, following the 7 September 2015 general elections.
The People's National Movement led by Keith Rowley secured 23 out of 41 seats to form the government, while the People's Partnership coalition led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar secured 18 out of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives to form the opposition.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar married Gregory Bissessar in 1971 and they have one son.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a grandmother of two and has described herself as an adherent of both Hinduism and the Spiritual Baptist faith.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar had raised her brother's children after he died in a car accident.