Maya Arulpragasam (also known as M.I.A.) is an English-Sri Lankan recording artist, painter, songwriter and director who has an estimated net worth of $10 million as of 2013.

M.I.A. began her career in 2000 as a visual artist, filmmaker and designer in West London before beginning her recording career in 2002.  In 2004, her singles "Sunshowers" and "Galang", which went to chart in the UK and Canada and reaching number eleven on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales in the US.

She released her debut album Arular in 2005 and second album Kala in 2007.  M.I.A.'s third album, Maya was released in 2010 soon after the controversial song-film short "Born Free". This became her highest-charting album in the UK and the US. It reached  number nine on the Billboard 200, topping the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and debuting in the top ten in Finland, Norway, Greece and Canada.

She owned a multimedia label, N.E.E.T. in 2009. M.I.A. signed artists such as Baltimore musician Blaqstarr, indie rock band Sleigh Bells and visual artist Jaime Martinez.

M.I.A. also released the mixtapes Piracy Funds Terrorism, which was released in 2004, and Vicki Leekx in 2010.

In 2011, she co-wrote the song "Give Me All Your Luvin'" with Madonna and Nicki Minaj, which was included in the album MDNA and performed it at the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show.

In 2012,  M.I.A officially signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation, and also released an autobiographical book titled M.I.A., which documented "the five years of M.I.A. art that spans across three LPs: Arular, Kala, and Maya."  The said book contains artwork as well as a foreword by frequent collaborator Steve Loveridge and various essays by M.I.A.

Her fourth studio album, Matangi, was recorded across the world with different collaborators. The first single off the album, "Bring the Noize", was produced by French producer Surkin and Switch, and was released on 17 June 2013. The official release date for Matangi will be on November 5, 2013, after M.I.A. threatened to leak the album due to the numerous delays by Interscope.

M.I.A. is the only artist in history to be nominated for an Academy Award, Grammy Award, Brit Award, Mercury Prize and Alternative Turner Prize, and the first artist of Asian descent to be nominated for an Academy and Grammy Award in the same year. Esquire magazine ranked M.I.A. on its list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century in January 2010, and in January 2010 Time magazine named her one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Mathangi Arulpragasam was born on July 18, 1975 in Hounslow, London. She grew up in Jaffna, a town in northern Sri Lanka. Her father was very politically active. She moved back to London with her mother and younger brother, and spent her late teenage years there. She studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and graduated in 2000. She has a son with partner Benjamin Bronfman.