Zohran Mamdani is Ugandan-born, of Indian descent through his parents, and identifies culturally as Muslim. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1991, and later moved to the United States with his family, growing up in New York City. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a prominent Ugandan-born academic of Indian origin, and his mother, Mira Nair, is a filmmaker. The combination of Ugandan birth and Indian heritage places his ethnicity and identity at the intersection of multiple histories, including Ugandan-Indian diaspora experiences and South Asian lineage.
