Dia Mirza(दिया मिर्ज़ा) Handrich, formerly known as Diya Mirza or Dia Mirza, nicknamed Dee, (born 9 December 1981 in Hyderabad, India) is an Indian model and actress.She took part in the Miss India 2000 beauty contest and was second runner up. She then went on to win the Miss Asia Pacific 2000 contest.Her father was a German interior designer; her mother is Deepa Mirza, a Bengali. They separated when she was six years old. Her father died when she was nine and her mother remarried: Ahmed Mirza whose surname she took, died in 2004. Though she has a Muslim name, she is a Hindu, and a follower of Ganesh. When living in Khairatabad, Hyderabad, she attended the Vidyaranya, a school based on the teachings of Krishnamurti, and later Nasr School, in Kushnuma. Currently, she lives in Bandra, Mumbai.
