Janani K. Jha

Janani K. Jha loves stories. So much so that after graduating with academic honors from Harvard College in 2020 and earning acceptance to Harvard Law School at the age of twenty, Janani (a.k.a. J. Maya) decided to defer her legal ambitions to pursue her lifelong pipe dream: music. Millions of listeners later, and she's still telling stories. Driven by a deep love of wordplay, she used to compete as a teenager on the international pun circuit, where contestants create puns within five seconds on themes introduced on the spot. Crowned as the world championships’ MVP at the age of seventeen, she became the youngest pun championships award-winner in history. Her fascination with language manifests in her music. In 2021, Janani published a demo of a Greek mythology-inspired song, “Achilles Heel,” online, where it generated millions of views. Upon its release as her debut single, Janani began writing more literature-infused alternative music in earnest and sharing it with her audience of millions. She’s been praised since for her “whip-smart” “hit[s]” and named as one of the freshest voices in music by media institutions like VOGUE, Forbes, MTV, NME, and the Recording Academy. In 2024, her cameo appearance as Aphrodite in the online hit EPIC: The Musical introduced her music to a new audience. With the release of her debut album, The Rest of the Laurels, Janani is just getting started.