Janani K. Jha, formerly using the name J. Maya, is an American singer-songwriter. She released her first song “Achilles Heel” on Jan. 1, 2021, and participated in the forty-fifth season of the American reality television competition series “Survivor” in 2023. 

Jha had auditioned to be in “Epic: The Musical” and got the part of Aphrodite, goddess of love. She had released her debut album, “The Rest of the Laurels,” on Dec. 6, 2024, before the last saga of “Epic.” The album was a concept project inspired by Greco-Roman mythology and received a lot of listeners. 

Not long after the release of the last saga, the “Ithaca” saga, she got the idea to write a musical of her own about Mary Shelley, who wrote the acclaimed “Frankenstein” when she was still a teenager.

The musical is still in the very early stages of writing, but Jha has shared snippets of some of the songs on her TikTok account for others to hear and to spread excitement. Jha’s reputation for writing songs inspired by Greco-Roman mythology and voicing Aphrodite in “Epic: The Musical,” has strengthened her fans’ hope in another great musical, this time about an amazing English novelist. 

Some of the songs that will most likely be included in the musical consists of “Graves”, “Make my Name”, and an unnamed song when Mary Shelley meets Ada Lovelace. Because of the early stages, Jha hasn’t revealed the voice actors, if she casted any at this point. There is still a long way to go with this work.

Because of where she’s at in the musical process, Jha didn’t expect the 100k views that she received overnight, and how the musical got a lot of hype in just a few days after Jha posted her TikToks. 

Jha is an amazing singer-songwriter, and everyone has no doubt this musical will be one of the most listened to musicals on any music platform for a long time.