My Le Thi was born and brought up in Buon Ma Thuot (Village of Father Thuot), Central Highlands in South Vietnam. As an orphan at the age of ten, she had to leave school to work in a salted fish shop where she taught herself art and music after work. When the Vietnam war ended in 1975, she became a professional performer, as a dancer and singer in the Central Highlands Troupe in South Vietnam, touring in Vietnam and Cambodia. In 1978, she won first prize in National Professional performance in Quy Nhon. In 1980 she was awarded a gold medal in a professional singing competition in Ha Noi.

In December 1985 she came to Australia. While staying at a Women’s Refuge, the manager of the house, Joyce Whaley, saw her drawings and enrolled her in an art course in the Darwin Arts College. Thi graduated in Arts at the Northern Territory University in 1994 and in Art Management at the University of Technology in Sydney in 1998. She also has extensive training in Digital Interactive Media (2014), Project Management (2014) and Teaching (2008 – 2020).

(Biography from artist's website.)