Mira Nair, born on October 15, 1957, in Rourkela, Odisha, India, is an acclaimed Indian American filmmaker. Her father Amrit Lal Nair was an IAS officer and her mother, Praveen Nair, a social worker. She was exposed to the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the ghazals of Begum Akhtar and Noor Jehan by her father at an early age. She spent her early childhood with her parents and two brothers in Bhubaneswar following which she left to attend Loreto Convent, Tara Hall, Shimla. Then she studied at Miranda House where she majored in Sociology. Thereafter, she pursued her studies at Delhi University and Harvard University. In 1977, she met her first husband, Mitch Epstein. They divorced in 1987, and in 1988, Nair met her second husband, the Indian Ugandan political scientist Mahmood Mamdani. Their son, Zohran Mamdani, is an American politician. Mira Nair teaches at Columbia University, New York. Her film production company, Mirabai Films, has established a laboratory to encourage young filmmakers from East Africa and India.