Biography

Graphic novelist, illustrator and children's book author, best known for her autobiographical novel "Persepolis" (2000), which was adapted into the movie Persepolis (2007).

Although her parents sent her to Vienna to flee the Iranian regime in 1984, she later returned to Tehran for college.

Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2016.

Lives in the Marais district of Paris with her Swedish husband.

Her mother's a great-granddaughter of Nasser-al-Din Shah, Shah of Persia from 1848 to 1896.

On her famous ancestor Nasser-al-Din-Shah: "You have to know the kings of the Quajar dynasty, they had hundreds of wives. They made thousands of kids. If you multiply these kids by generation you have, I don't know, 10-15,000 princes and princesses. There's nothing extremely special about that."

I'm not a politician. I don't know how to solve the problems of the world. But as an artist, I have one duty: to ask questions.

I always liked the story: They told Adam not to eat the apple, and the first thing Eve did was eat the apple. So this is Eve's fault. I mean, did Adam have a brain or not? He could say, "I won't eat the apple," but it's Eve's fault. And human civilization is based on that. It's our fault.

...unfortunately you know, most of the people, they consider animation much like comedies, as a genre. It's not a genre. It's just a medium.

I edit four times. Edit, then don't see the film for two weeks - and then edit it again. Every time you see something for a long time, you are convinced that it works, then you get some distance and look at it again and you realize, 'This is not working'.