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Mareen Charindaka Nirmalan Mendis (born Dec 28, 1986), also known simply as Charin, and by his stage name Jextr Griin, is a Sri Lankan singer-songwriter, vocal artist, dj, record producer, musician, photographer, digital artist and designer.

Charin was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka on December 28, 1986 to Chrishan and Nirmalee Mendis. Mendis, who has three siblings, is of Sinhalese and Portuguese ancestry.

[8][9][10] His mother was the held a variety of jobs, including accounting clerk, foreign-exchange teller and gospel singer. Minaj's father, who worked for American Express, was addicted to alcohol and other drugs and attempted to kill her mother by setting their house on fire.[11][12] Until she was five years old Minaj lived with her grandmother in Saint James and was occasionally visited by her mother, with whom she later moved to Queens, New York.[13] Minaj said that her upbringing, which lacked discipline, made her "seek out and practice self-discipline".[14]

She attended PS 45 (the Clarence Witherspoon School) and Elizabeth Blackwell Middle School 210, where she played clarinet, for her elementary education.[13] Minaj graduated from LaGuardia High School, which focuses on music and the visual and performing arts.[15][16] In the drama program, she planned to sing at LaGuardia but lost her voice the day of the audition.[15] Minaj described her distraction from academics in high school by "acting and boys".[17] She wanted to become an actress, and was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget in 2001.[18] When Minaj's acting career failed to take off, at age 19 she worked as a waitress at Red Lobster in the Bronx[19] but was fired because of her discourtesy to customers; she said she had been fired from "at least fifteen jobs" for similar reasons.[20] She also worked as an administrative assistant, in customer service and as an office manager for a Wall Street business.[