Priya Dali (29)
Creative director, Gaysi Family
For Priya Dali, design has never been a standalone practice. It is a way of making sense of identity, of creating entry points into conversations. At 29, the creative director at Gaysi Family has emerged as one of the most influential cultural designers working in the queer ecosystem by shaping not just what is seen, but who gets to be seen at all.
A graduate of Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dali’s creative journey took shape alongside her personal one. She had been drawing from an early age, a skill that initially came instinctively before finding direction through formal training.
Closeted through much of college, she turned to visual storytelling as a way to explore questions she could not yet voice. Her graduation project, a graphic novel about coming out to parents in India, unfolded from real conversations with her mother in 2017 at a time when Section 377 was still in force. That project led her to Gaysi Family, where she joined as an intern the same year. Eight years later, Dali has grown alongside the platform and moved from illustrator to art director to creative director. She has helped transform Gaysi into a multi-format queer media and community institution, co-leading some of its most defining initiatives—including Queer Swipe Stories, Queering Workspaces, Zine Bazaar, Queer Made Weekend, Open Art House and Do You See Us?, which is among the first largescale queer art exhibitions in India. These are sustained platforms that are designed to nurture queer writers, illustrators, designers and performers, many of whom she has mentored.
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Dali has also been involved in children’s publishing, an area she identifies as needing greater diversity in representation. Her work includes illustrating and art-directing titles such as Maya the Warrior, a wordless picture book on belonging, The Boy in the Cupboard, and The Many Colours of Anshu and Grace, India’s first picture book centred on a trans protagonist. The Boy in the Cupboard, illustrated by Dali and authored by Harshala Gupte, featured on the Parag Honour List in 2022.
She has also co-created a toolkit on diversity and representation in children’s literature in collaboration with Pratham Books and UNICEF.
Since 2018, she has led long-running collaborations with companies such as Tinder and Godrej, pushing queer representation beyond one-off Pride campaigns. “She’s one of those rare creative partners who understands brand intent deeply without diluting community truth,” says Rashi Wadhera, AVP for brand and marketing at Nykaa and former director of brand strategy for Tinder India and Southeast Asia. Wadhera worked with Dali across more than 30 campaigns over six years. “The fact that many of Priya’s designs are still in use, five years later, tells you everything about their longevity.”
Those collaborations led to longer-running initiatives such as Queer Made, an offline community-focussed platform, and Queer Swipe Stories, a digital archive of queer dating experiences.
In 2023, Dali co-founded Are You Serious?, a queer-led creative studio that advises brands on inclusion and social impact through design and storytelling. “To run a community-led space is very different from working as an individual,” she says. “I’m constantly thinking about how to bring more people into the conversation, not just how to express myself.”
Her focus is now on scaling the studio, extending engagement beyond Pride month, and integrating queer narratives into everyday brand and cultural communication.
First Published: Jan 13, 2026, 12:38
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