Shayan Italia

Shayan Italia, also known by his stage name Shayan (pronounced 'shy-yan'), is an Indian-born International multi-award winning British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur. He gained publicity by selling portions of his future earnings on eBay and with his song "Reflection". He is only one of a handful of individuals from India to be interviewed by Sir David Frost. Feel, his album is a collection of 12 songs honouring his Mother who died from Multiple Myeloma. The ambitious production features a production crew of 135 musicians, vocalists, engineers, arrangers and multi-Grammy, Emmy and Brit award winning producers. Feel, as a body of work, is personal and not for commercial release. As a free give away, the album has garnered over 30 million downloads worldwide and is under consideration to be made into a Broadway musical. Italia started Biryani360 in Mumbai on 1 March 2015, a critically acclaimed food delivery service rated as Forbes Best Food Delivery Startup India, CNBC Best Online StartupFood Delivery, TimesCity's 5 Food Startups You Need To Try, Best Takeaway Food Joints in Mumbai, Economic Times’ 5 Internet Startups That Have Become Household Names and was recently honoured as one of the Hot 100 Tech Startups at the Exhibit Awards 2016 that took place on 9 March 2016 in Bengaluru.

Born and raised a Zoroastrian in Secunderabad, India, Shayan studied at The Doon School, Dehradun and moved to London after the deaths of both his parents. He has earned two degrees, a bachelor's degree in audio engineering from the Alchemea College of Audio Engineering and a master's degree in Music Business Management from the University of Westminster.

Shayan unexpectedly began writing songs after his mother died. He was the first unsigned act to have a song played on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and performed at the Royal Albert Hall. To support the production of his album "Feel", he auctioned off a portion of his future earnings on eBay, raising in seven days, but later raised a sum total of million by conventional means. He has also been interviewed by Sir David Frost on his show Frost Over The World His song "Reflection" reached number one on YouTube's music video chart. The song had previously won the All India Song Contest.

Italia started Biryani360 in Mumbai. The idea came to him when he was sitting in his bedroom and fooling around with animation software and created a video of two fictitious characters that declared their unity for one another over their love for Biryani. This sparked interested amongst both family and peers and eventually led him to consider setting it up as a business. The brand's flagship kitchen was setup in Bandra, a popular district of Mumbai, and operations started on 1 March 2015. Within a year, Italia, through guerilla marketing and social media, steered the brand to become a critically acclaimed food delivery service rated as Forbes Best Food Delivery Startup India, CNBC Best Online StartupFood Delivery, TimesCity's 5 Food Startups You Need To Try, Best Takeaway Food Joints in Mumbai, Economic Times’ 5 Internet Startups That Have Become Household Names and was recently honoured as one of the Hot 100 Tech Startups at the Exhibit Awards 2016 that took place on 9 March 2016 in Bengaluru. Biryani360’s food is created using BlueFlame™ technology and features very little cholesterol and oil. It is nutritionally healthy and complies with the FDA guidelines for a balanced meal.

Post his parent's death, Italia has been actively associated with multiple causes globally relating to Cancer Research and Multiple Sclerosis and has helped raise funds privately for the same.