Mia Evonne Uyeda is a Canadian actor, model, columnist, and VJ who built a career between international fashion modeling and Indian television and cinema. She became known through the 2007 Kingfisher Calendar, MTV India's Saturday Night Shuffle, and roles in films including Blood Money, Cocktail, and Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive.
Background
Mia Evonne Uyeda was born on May 25, 1984, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her mother is French Canadian, while her father was adopted and did not know his family origins. Uyeda was discovered at a convenience store at the age of fourteen, beginning a modeling career that took her across Canada, Europe, the United States, and East Asia.
At twenty-one, while completing a modeling assignment in Malaysia, Uyeda traveled to India. A fashion-show appearance led to an invitation to audition for the Kingfisher Calendar, connecting her international modeling career with Mumbai's expanding fashion, advertising, and entertainment industries.
Career
Uyeda began modeling as a teenager and worked internationally before coming to India. Her assignments included campaigns for Kaya Skin Clinic, Bisleri, Pantaloons, Killer Loop sunglasses, and Sakhi Sari. She appeared in the 2007 Kingfisher Calendar, participated in Lakme India Fashion Week, and appeared on the covers of Elle and L'Officiel and in FHM, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, Grazia, and Femina.
In India, Uyeda expanded from fashion into television presentation. She became a VJ for MTV India's Saturday Night Shuffle and also worked on Maharajah Route, a travel program filmed across Rajasthan. Music television and travel programming formed part of the period's rapidly developing Indian commercial television sector, in which presenters and models frequently moved between advertising, fashion, and screen entertainment.
Uyeda entered Hindi cinema with an item appearance in Sankat City in 2009 and later made a brief appearance in Tees Maar Khan. She appeared in Yash Raj Films' television crime series Khotey Sikkey in 2011 and competed in the fourth season of Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, broadcast on Colors TV. Her more substantial film work included the role of Rosa in Blood Money in 2012, a cameo in Cocktail the same year, and the role of Junior in Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive in 2016.
Personality
Uyeda has described acting as a passion for being in front of the camera and entertaining audiences. She has identified her grandmother, who had acted as the lead in a 1960s telefilm, as an inspiration for her acting career.
