Dia Mirza Handrich, nicknamed Dee and more popularly known as Dia Mirza, height: 5'6'', (born on December 9, 1981) is a Indian model and actress who appears in Bollywood films. She was a second runner up at Femina Miss India, 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific, 2000, where she won. She completed the hat-trick of India winning international pageants in the year 2000 (Lara Dutta won the Miss Universe title and Priyanka Chopra won the Miss World title in the same year) when she won the Miss Asia Pacific title on 3 December 2000 in Manila, Philippines, also making her the first Indian contestant to win this title in 29 years. The actress along with her boyfriend Sahil Sangha and good friend Zayed Khan has started her own production house, Born Free Entertainment, and is making the first film "Love, Breakups and Zindagi" under the banner.
Her dad's name was Frank Handrich, a German National, and an Interior Designer by profession, and her mom, Deepa, is Bengali-speaking. Deepa and Frank separated when Dia was 6, and Frank passed away three years later. Deepa then married Ahmed Mirza. The family lived in Khairatabad near Hyderabad and she completed her schooling in Vidyaranya High School and in Nasr School. Her step-father passed away during 2004.She was introverted and unhappy as a child, and it was her parents, especially her mom, who instilled self-confidence and assisted her to break free from the barriers of low self-esteem.
CareerMirza 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 modeled 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, traveling and training. She is proficient in Telugu, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and English.
Mirza made her cinematic debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein opposite R. Madhavan. Though, the film was not a box office success, but she received a nomination for 'Best Female Debut' at the Zee Cine Awards.
In 2005, Mirza appeared in Parineeta, a Vidhu Vinod Chopra production. She also starred in the music video, Kajara Mohabbat Wala alongside Sonu Nigam from his album Kajara Nite. The album contained multiple remixes, but was mainly advertised with the title song, sung by Sonu Nigam and Alisha Chinai.
She also appeared in the films Dus and Fight Club. She was the only female actor among the six key characters in the film, Acid Factory in which she played a femme fatale who is also a gangster.
