Mia

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, M.I.A. (her stage name, “Missing in Act(i)on”) is an English musician, producer, painter, and director. Her music combines elements of hip-hop, electronica, dance, alternative, and influences from around the world. She is the first artist to be nominated for all of the following awards: an Academy Award (for her work on the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire), two Grammys, a Brit Award, and Mercury Prize; and the first artist of Asian descent to be nominated for an Academy Award and Grammy in the same year. The first nine years of her life were marked by displacement due to the Sri Lankan civil war—a theme that influences her work, which is often political.