Munira Mirza is Advisor to the Mayor of London on Arts and Culture. She graduated from Oxford University in 1999 and completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Kent in 2008.

Munira has a background in cultural policy research and has worked for a range of organisations including the Royal Society of Arts, Tate, and the think tank, Policy Exchange. She has also taught and lectured at different universities, including the University of Kent and University of East London.

As well as regular journalism, she has published an edited collection of essays about arts policy called Culture Vultures: Is UK Arts Policy Damaging the Arts (2006) and managed a major research project about radicalisation in the UK called Living Apart Together: British Muslims and the Paradox of Multiculturalism (2007). She has also published several articles and reviews in academic journals.

Munira is a member of Arts Council London, MLA London, a Council Member on the UK Committee of the European Cultural Foundation and is a founding member of the Manifesto Club.