Lauren O'Hara

Lauren O’Hara is an illustrator. As a child she loved reading fairytales, painting insects and listening to her grandmother’s stories. She studied Art and Illustration at Kingston University and then designed window displays and props for films. Lauren’s career as an illustrator began when her sister Natalia suggested that they collaborate on a picture book, which became Hortense and the Shadow. She has since illustrated many other books with Natalia including Once Upon a Stolen Sleigh and Once Upon a Fairytale. As well as working with her sister she has illustrated Madame Badobedah by author Sophie Dahl, and Mei Mei the Bunny by two-time Grammy Award winner Laufey.

She has been twice nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal, has received the Illustrators’ Ireland KPMG Illustration Honour Award for Frindleswylde and has been twice shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards. Her work has been recognised by The Guardian and Sunday Independent, and she was a speaker at the Children’s Books Ireland Conference in 2025.

She lives in a converted church in Dublin with her partner, their cat Ida and assorted ghosts.