Born in Tehran (Iran), Leila Zelli lives and works in Montréal. She holds an MFA (2020) and a BFA (2016) in Visual and Media Arts from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her work has been shown, among others, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Collection Arts du Tout-Monde), at the Conseil des arts de Montréal (2019-2020), at Galerie de l’UQAM (2020, 2019, 2015, 2024), at Dazibao (2023) at the Foreman Gallery of Bishop's University (2024) and at the Toronto Biennial (2024). In November 2025, her latest video work, titled Each Street Tells The Story of a Fearless Woman, premiered at the Loop Barcelona fair. Her works are part of the collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée Pointe-à-Callière, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec’s Prêt d’oeuvres d’art collection, the Musée d'art de Joliette, the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul and the collections of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Hydro-Québec, Desjardins and the Servais Family Collection. She is the laureate of the 2023 Prix Lynne-Cohen and the 2021 laureate of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art.