Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alica (uh-lee-kuh) Sheyahshe Mteuzi, an Albuquerque-based writer and director, graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) with a BFA in digital arts and a minor in creative writing in 2023. She is enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma through her mother and maternal grandfather, descends from formerly enslaved Indigenous Africans on her father's side, and the Southern Cheyenne & Arapaho Peoples through her maternal grandmother.