Daiva Bhandari is a Chicago-based dance and theatre artist originally from southern Louisiana.

Daiva earned her BA in Drama from Loyola University, New Orleans and studied Modern Dance at Tulane University. In Chicago she has worked with The Neo-Futurists, Steppenwolf, Steep Theatre, Theatre Y, Manual Cinema, Pop Magic Productions, Emerald City Theatre and The Building Stage, and Daiva has performed the choreography of Michael Estanich, Lucy Vurusic-Riner, Corinne Imberski, Kelly Anderson and Erin Kilmurray.

In 2019, together with longtime collaborator Kevin V. Smith, Daiva co-founded the Chicago-based production company Blue in the Right Way. The company’s debut was a queer feminist adaptation of Thomas Middleton’s WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN which engaged a team of over 40 artists and premiered at The Edge Theater in Chicago in May 2024.