MANDANA TALIEH began drawing and painting from an early age and her love of art led her to create the characters Wise Dog & Jimmi and begin her first line of greeting cards. Mandana was inspired by I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and spirituality has guided her artistic expression.

Her animated shorts have been screened at film festivals across America. She lives on the Central Coast of California, where she paints and illustrates children’s stories and poems, and now What the Lizard Said, her first in a series of Wise Dog & Jimmi books.