Living Smile Vidya, or Smiley, is an Indian actress, assistant director, writer, and trans and Dalit rights activist[1] from Chennai.

[3] After gender-reassignment surgery, she settled in Tamil Nadu, where she began her career working for two years at a rural bank in Madurai, and got involved with theatre.

[11][12] In addition to theater, Smiley has worked as a clown,[1] and described her experience as a dancer as being an important part of her journey as a trans woman.

[6][13] In 2014, Smiley co-founded the Panmai theatre troupe in Tamil Nadu, along with fellow trans activists Angel Glady and Gee Imaan Semmalar, inspired in part by cultural groups she saw in London.

[15][16] The Dalit History Month project describes Living Smile Vidya as "the first trans person [in India] to have her chosen gender identity reflected in her passport.

Smiley reports receiving death threats for her activism around caste starting in 2014 or 2015; her subsequent application for asylum in Switzerland was denied.

[18][19] Smiley's autobiography I Am Vidya[20] was written in Tamil, and translated into seven languages, including English, Malayalam, Marathi, and Kannada.