Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, to anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair. His father's family is Khoja — a Gujarati Indian trading community with a centuries-old Twelver Shia Muslim tradition — and his mother comes from a Punjabi Hindu family, giving him an interfaith upbringing. Mamdani has spoken publicly and repeatedly about being a Shia Muslim, describing his faith as an integral and proud part of his identity even as he faced Islamophobic attacks during his political campaigns.

The family moved to New York City when Zohran was seven, and he was raised in Manhattan's Morningside Heights, attending the Bronx High School of Science before earning a bachelor's degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College in Maine. He worked for several years as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor in Queens, helping low-income homeowners of color fight eviction, before entering politics.

Mamdani was first elected to the New York State Assembly representing Astoria, Queens, in 2020. In 2025 he won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary and general election as a democratic socialist candidate, becoming the city's first Muslim mayor and first mayor of South Asian and Ugandan descent. He was sworn in as the 112th Mayor of New York City on January 1, 2026. He is married to Syrian-American artist and animator Rama Duwaji, whom he met on a dating app in 2021; the couple held a nikah ceremony in Dubai in 2024 and a civil wedding at New York City Hall in February 2025, before moving into Gracie Mansion as the city's first family.