Thandiwe Muriu, born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, discovered photography at age fourteen, experimenting with her father's old Nikon camera. Self-taught, she immersed herself in books and video tutorials, learning from every resource she could find, as Kenya did not have any formal photography schools. By age seventeen, she was working professionally, and by twenty-three had shot her first solo advertising campaign. By 2019, she was photographing campaigns for some of the largest companies in East Africa. Since then she has received multiple commissions for collaborations with brands such as Apple, Dior, and Lavazza. Muriu has exhibited her work internationally and has been featured in numerous publications and on television.