Laerte Coutinho was born in São Paolo, Brazil in 1951. She studied music and journalism, and co-founded magazine Balão in 1972. Her comics have been published in magazines such as Chiclete com Banana, Gerladão, Veja and Placar. She has won several awards and held various exhibitions. Her strips still appear weekly in newspapers, and she is one of Los Tres Amigos, together with Angeli and Glauco. In 2011 she underwent a sex change and became a transgender woman.
