Farshid Shafiei, an Iranian painter, illustrator, and animator, was born in 1968 in Tehran. He holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Azad University and a master's degree in animation from the Tehran University of Art. Currently, he resides and works in New York City.

Shafiei works across various media, including illustration, graphic design, animation, and painting, and is considered one of the founders of the modern illustration movement in Iran. He is among the most prominent figures who introduced modernist illustration styles into the realm of children's literature and books. As a contemporary painter, Shafiei presents a modern Iranian approach with a figurative language in his works, forging a connection between illustration and modern painting. In addition to his work in painting and illustration, he is also active in the field of animated films.

His solo exhibitions have been held at prominent galleries, including Haft Samar Gallery (1997, 1999), Etemad Gallery, Tehran (2001, 2006), Maryam Fasihi Harandi Gallery, Tehran (2011), Homa Art Gallery, Tehran (2015), and Sahar Khan Boluki Gallery, Toronto (2021). Shafiei's works have also been showcased in numerous group exhibitions, including those at A Gallery, Maryam Fasihi Harandi Gallery, Homa Gallery, White Wall New York, 17 Essex New York, The Bridge and Tunnel Brooklyn, and Boluki Gallery in Toronto. He has participated in the Fifth Tehran Contemporary Painting Biennial (2000) and the "Asia Now" Art Fair in Paris in 2021, organized by the Behnoud Foundation.

Shafiei has earned numerous awards in various artistic fields. These include being selected multiple times by the Iranian section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), winning first prize at the First Festival of Illustrating Iranian Literary Masterpieces in 2007, receiving the Golden Apple at the Bratislava Biennial of Illustration in 2007, and being awarded first prize for best illustration from the Society of Iranian Writers at the Fifth Tehran Illustration Exhibition in 2002.

Art critic Shahrouz Nazari says of Shafiei: "He is an artist who does not rely solely on his established style and continually presents new facets of himself. It is this willingness to take risks that has saved him from artistic stagnation."