Born and raised on Chicago's Northwest and South sides, Laya (she/they) graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. Since she has dedicated herself to uplifting the arts through her skillsets in SEO/SEM copywriting, graphic design, content strategy, and care-oriented community building and group facilitation.
Outside of their work in marketing, Laya is a filmmaker and a media critic/writer. In 2024, she was awarded the Emerging Critics Grant from Rotten Tomatoes and the Chicago Film Critics Association, and was selected as an OTV Fellow for their cohort of Intersectional Global Storytellers. They have shared a variety of visual and video-based work across Chicago and Berlin. Laya feels empowered by getting to collaborate with others and is deeply inspired by being in community with other thoughtful, creative, and spiritual people.