Maya Shiraz was born in Shiraz, Tehran in 1962. From a very young age, her parents instilled the values of higher education and artistic pursuits in their daughter. Her parents were creative people - her mother was an avid reader and nature enthusiast and her father was a lover of the violin. At age seven, Maya began exploring her own creativity through poetry.

Maya's love of the visual arts developed in childhood, when she took up calligraphy and drawing. Drawing became her impassioned hobby. By the time she was fourteen, Maya’s style began to take shape and become a unique expression of her creative mind. However, Maya did not pursue the arts academically. She studied mathematics at Georgia Tech and received an M.S. in Statistics.

The technical skills she acquired through her mathematical education would become apparent later in her visual work. Her mathematical precision along with her artistic knowledge have meshed well in her artistic ventures. Her scrupulous attention to detail can be seen in every aspect of her figurative works. In recent years, Maya has taken up ceramics in an effort to expand her artistic prowess.