Mehrdad Zaeri was born in 1970 in Iran. His family applied for asylum in Germany when he was fourteen, emigrating in 1985. After finishing school, he decided to draw pictures for the rest of his life. While exhibiting his early drawings, he also worked as a taxi driver. By 2001, he was a full-time freelance artist. He also creates drawings as part of multimedia performances, including those by the storytelling group Knopfkino, which he founded. Since 2016, he and his wife, Christina Laube, as Duo Sourati, have been painting large murals in cities around the world.