Gia Strauss was born in Jerusalem to a Swiss German mother and a South African father on February 6 1988. Growing up in Israel during the Intifada, she endured a particularly difficult childhood. She then moved with her mother and siblings to Zanzibar where she spent a number of years. Returning to Israel she attended drama school in Tel Aviv, before moving to London in 2009 where she began to develop her talents as an artist focusing on painting, filmmaking and music (piano).