Mira Nair is the Oscar-nominated director of movies like Salaam Bombay!, Vanity Fair, and Monsoon Wedding.

Born in the Orissa state of India, Nair moved to the US when she earned a scholarship to Harvard. Initially studying psychology, she started making documentary films thanks to the influence of her first husband, photographer Mitch Epstein, and screenwriter-friend Sooni Taraporevala. She and Taraporevala hit the big time with her tale of Indian slumdogs Salaam Bombay! in 1988, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and allowed Nair to work with A-List stars, such as Denzel Washington in her follow-up film Mississippi Masala and Marisa Tomei and Angelica Huston in The Perez Family. However, she may be known best for her 2001 film Monsoon Wedding, which won her the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, making her the first female recipient. She's since diversified her films' content, with the adaptation of William Thackery's novel Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon, an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, and the best-forgotten biopic Amelia, featuring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. While she's not in production, she is an adjunct film professor at Columbia. [Image via Getty]