Prabha Mallya is an illustrator, visual designer and comics creator based in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is at her happiest when fussing around with inks and stubby pencils, and frequently has black fingernails.

She has illustrated for Salim Mamoo and Me (Tulika), Lori’s Magical Mystery (Puffin), Beastly Tales from Here and There (Penguin), The Jungle Book (Rupa), The Wildings and The Hundred Names of Darkness (Aleph), and several book covers. Her graphic short stories have appeared in Mint, ForbesLife, and Brainwave magazine, and anthologies like SPRING Magazin #13, This Side That Side:Restorying Partition and the Obliterary Journal Vol II. She art directed at Manta Ray Comics, and is a frequent collaborator with Studio Kokaachi. She was a recurring contributor and art editor at Current Conservation magazine and Dakshin Foundation.

Her first book, The Alphabet of Animals and Birds (Red Turtle) is a collection of illustrated collective nouns for children, and is available here. The Alphabet was awarded The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Award 2016 for Best Picture Book – Illustrations.

Prabha is now a PhD student at the School of Product Design at the University of Canterbury, where she also teaches freehand drawing and other design-related stuff.