Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran on November 22, 1969 to a family who was very active in political and social movements at that time. At the age of 14, Satrapi fled the Iranian regime and was sent to live in Vienna, Austria, where she attended the Lycée Français de Vienne. She stayed in Vienna throughout her high school years, staying in friends' homes, but eventually becoming homeless. She returned to Iran, married, and studied Visual Communication, eventually obtaining a Master's Degree in Visual Communication from the School of Fine Arts in Tehran at Islamic Azad University. At the age of 21, she divorced her husband and in 1994, she moved to France.
Marjane Satrapi started to take a real interest in the power of graphic novels when she met David Beauchard. David Beauchard studied advertising at the Duperee School of Applied Arts. Satrapi met Beauchard while she too was attending college and he became one of the biggest influences of Satrapi's writing and drawing style. She particularly enjoyed Beuchard's black and white style and the simplicity of his drawings. Learning from Beuchard, Satrapi then established her own creative take which evolved into a finished project, Persepolis, which went on to win multiple awards and eventually was turned into an award-winning animated film. She currently lives in Paris, where her illustrations appear regularly in newspapers and magazines.
For her novel Persepolis, Satrapi recieved: Prix Alph'art Coup de Coeur (a beginning comic artist award) at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in 2001, Prix du Lion, Belgian Center for Comic Strips in 2001 for best news comic strip at the France Info at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in 2002. In 2008 she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year for Persepolis, in 2007 she won the Sutherland Trophy from the British Film Institute for Persepolis, and also received the Prix Alph'art for best script. She was also awarded the Fernando Buesa Blanco Peace Prize from the Fernando Buesa Blanco Foundation in 2003, and the Prix d'Angouleme for best book of the year at the Angouleme International Comics Festival for Chicken and Plums, in 2005.put your text here
