Lisa Graa Jensen was born in Soborg, Denmark. She attended the Sir John Cass School of Art in Whitechapel, London and she achieved a BA Honours degree in Graphic Design/Book Illustration at Camberwell School of Art, London in 1978. She became a full-time illustrator with B.L. Kearley Limited working for Hamlyn, MacMillan, Marshall Cavendish and the BBC as well as Puffin Books and Camden Graphics. She is now a freelance painter and illustrator.