Maclear was born in London, England and moved to Toronto, Canada at a young age. Her father is journalist and documentary filmmaker Michael Maclear and her mother is Japanese artist and gallerist Yoko Maclear (nee Koide). She studied fine art and art history at the University of Toronto, completed an Master of Arts in cultural studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 1996, and obtained a doctorate in environmental humanities and education at York University in 2018.
