Cartoonist Shivram Dattatreya Phadnis was born on July 29, 1925 at Bhoj, Dist. Belgaum, India. He took his formal art education at Sir J. J. School of Arts, Mumbai.

Extremely interested in cartooning, he moved to Pune with the strong active support of noted editor, late Mr. Anant Antarkar of Hans Publications, and started his career as a cartoonist and a humour illustrator. Since then, innumerable books and periodicals have been enlivened by the cartoons of S D Phadnis. He has carved a niche for himself in the field of humourous illustrations. Many of his works have been featured at the International Salon of Cartoons, Montreal, Canada.

His simple, captionless cartoons bring out the humour in everyday life, crossing the boundaries of language, region or class.

Married to Shakuntala, he has two daughters, Leena and Roopa. He has his own studio at Pune. Mrs. Shakuntala Phadnis, who is a writer, manages the Laughing Gallery exhibition and the Chitrahas show.