Nicki Minaj is a Trinidadian-American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and model based in the United States. She was born Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty on December 8, 1982, in Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. At the age of five, she moved to Queens, New York City, with her family. Her mother is Afro-Trinidadian, and her father is Indo-Trinidadian. She attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, where she majored in drama.