[citation needed] Her parents were born in India and migrated to Pakistan; they eventually moved to Indiana, where Mirza finished high school before relocating to Chicago.

As a young girl, Fawzia Mirza fell under the spell of Bollywood heroines and their promise of love and feminine perfection.

[6] Her one-woman show Me, My Mom and Sharmila explores growing up queer and South Asian; in 2015 she performed it at the International Theatre Festival at the National College of Arts in Lahore.

She has made a number of award-winning short films including The First Session, Spunkle, Reclaiming Pakistan, The Streets Are Ours, Saya and I Know Her..

[8] In 2020, her feature screenplay adaptation of The Queen of My Dreams was accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival Writers Studio and Filmmaker Lab, under the working title Me, My Mom & Sharmila.