Alexandra Colen was born in Dublin (1955) and grew up in County Monaghan. She holds an MA in Linguistics (University of Reading, UK) and a doctorate in Germanic Philology (University of Ghent, Flanders). She lectured at the universities of Antwerp and Ghent and is the author of A Syntactic and Semantic Study of English Predicative Nominals  and a co-author of Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Engels Nederlands (Van Dale Comprehensive English to Dutch Dictionary) and other linguistic books.

Alexandra Colen is married to Flemish journalist Paul Belien and renounced an academic career to become a full-time mother, homeschooling their five children.

In 1995, Dr. Colen became a member of the Belgian federal parliament. She is an MP for the Flemish secessionist party Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok). Within this party she represents the conservative (on moral issues) and libertarian (on economic issues) wing. Alexandra Colen is the publisher of the Flemish quarterly Secessie, which publishes contributions by Flemish academics and politicians from various parties (Christian-Democrats, Liberals, Flemish-Nationalists, etc.)