Kia LaBeija was born in New York, New York in 1990. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She received a BA in The Arts from The New School in New York where she studied photography at Parsons School of Design. LaBeija is classically trained in ballet and studied at The Juilliard School and The Ailey School. She developed a love for theater and costume growing up in New York’s theater district and studying musical theater at the Professional Performing Arts School. At 19, she was adopted into The House of LaBeija, one of New York’s first houses of the drag ballroom scene. She is currently the Overall Mother of the Iconic House of LaBeija. Her works have been included in group exhibitions, performances, and screenings at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Museum of The City of New York, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, International Center for Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; La MaMa Galleria, Tacoma Art Museum, Zuckerman Museum of Art, The City University of New York, Bronx River Arts Center, Clifford Chance, and ONE Archives Gallery and Museum. She was named one of NBC’s Honoring 28 Black Innovators under the age of 28. LaBeija has visual and written contributions in forthcoming publications for Visual AIDS's DUETS — In Conversation series with Julie Tolentino and Triple Canopy's issue 24, Risk Pool.