Dr. Leila Honari is an animator of Persian background whose first profession was as a designer of traditional carpets. Her principal research interests lie in the field of cultural and historical animation. She focuses on making animated projects that weave social, cultural, cross-cultural, and historical themes within a symbolic context, examining motifs and metaphor in relation to animated storytelling, using hand-drawn, painterly, and patterned-form techniques. 

Leila leads the Art Direction major in the Griffith Film School’s animation program. Her teaching centres on concept design and creative development from a dedicated foundation of drawing, covering human and animal figures, interior and external environments, objects, and landscapes, including colour, perspective, layout, and form within the context of animation production.