Qandeel was born on 1 March, 1990 in Shah Sadar Din, a town in the Dera Ghazi Khan District, of the southern part of the Punjab province of Pakistan, into a Saraiki-speaking, ethnic Baloch family. She came from an underprivileged family, the daughter of Anwar Bibi and Muhammad Azeem, who scratched a living from local farming. She had six brothers and two sisters. Growing up, she was interested in her studies, as well as acting and singing. Before her rise to fame, her first job was as a bus hostess. On 15 July 2016, Baloch was drugged and then asphyxiated by her brother M. Waseem while she was asleep at her parents' home in Multan. Her death was reported by her father Azeem. Baloch's death has drawn mixed reactions from different sections of society in Pakistan. Some called her death an honour killing, and some think that the motive was money. An episode in the A-Plus Entertainment series Yeh Junoon was partially based on her life. The series starred Zhalay Sarhadi and Shamoon Abbasi in lead roles. On 27 July 2017, Urdu1 started to air a 28-episode biopic television drama titled Baaghi based on Qandeel's life, where Saba Qamar plays her character. The first episode amassed more than 4 million views on YouTube, and the series went on to become a major critical and commercial success. In 2016, MangoBaaz reported that Qandeel Baloch was the most Googled person in Pakistan in 2016. In March 2017, the British-Pakistani-Indian-American hip hop group Swet Shop Boys dedicated the track Aaja from their latest album to the memory of Qandeel Baloch. Recorded samples of her voice from her social media content is also used towards the end of the track. In June 2017, a documentary film Undercover Asia S4: In The Name Of Honour premiered on Channel NewsAsia. Produced by Make Productions, it tells how Baloch's bold and sexual videos challenged convention and shocked a nation which later led to fatal consequences. The 2023 film Wakhri is loosely based on Baloch’s case.