Dia Mirza

Dia Mirza, (born as Dia Handrich on 9 December, 1981) is an Indian model, actress and Former Miss Asia-Pacific who appears in Bollywood films. Diya is known in media for her Social work. Diya co-owns a production house Born Free Entertainment along with Sahil Sangha and Zayed Khan. Their first film, Love Breakups Zindagi, made under the banner was released on 7 October 2011.

Dia Mirza was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Her father, Frank Handrich, was a German graphic and industrial fair designer, architect, artist and interior designer from Munich and her mother, Deepa is a Bengali Hindu who is an interior designer, landscaper and currently does social work as a volunteer to help alcoholics and addicts. They separated when she was six years old. Her father died when she was nine and her mother married Ahmed Mirza, who died in 2004. She adopted her stepfather's surname and has recently adopted the last name of her birth-father, becoming Dia Mirza Handrich.

When living in Khairatabad, Hyderabad district, she attended Vidyaranya High School for Boys and Girls, a school partly based on the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, and later Nasr School, in Khairtabad. She attended Stanley Junior College and completed her graduation in Bachelors of Arts from Andhra Pradesh Open University, Hyderabad.

Dia Mirza worked when still in college as a Marketing executive for a media firm. At the same time she modeled for print and TV commercials for brands like Lipton, Emami and many more. She won Asia Pacific in the year 2000. She debuted through 'Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein' which could not do well at Box Office. Then she appeared in various movies like 'Dum', 'Deewanapan', 'Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge', 'Tumsa Nahin Dekha - A Love Story', 'Parineeta', 'Dus', 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' etc. She could not grow up as an Actress. But she has garnered a lot of praise for her social work. She has also got an IIFA 2012 Green Award for her contribution towards green environment. She has done various awareness campaigns on prevention of female feticide, HIV awareness, PETA, Cry. She also publicly supported the Naramada Bachao Andolan. She has also written articles for Hindustan Times and other publications.

Dia started working at the age of 16 years while continuing her college education. She worked as a marketing executive in a multi-media firm called Dr. Neeraj’s Multi media studio. She simultaneously modelled for the print and television advertisement campaigns of various brands such as Walls, Lipton, Emami etc. Mirza wanted to complete her graduation in Arts by correspondence, but decided to postpone it as it was becoming difficult to juggle between the Miss Asia Pacific competition, modeling assignments, travelling and training.