Rena Anousi – Ilia was born in 1934 in Athens. She studied engraving at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1952 – 1957) in the art workshop of Jean Kefalinos and graduated with honours in colour woodcut.

She taught art design at the Model Evangelical School of Smyrna, and since 1966 she has been working in secondary education. She has also published articles on the method of teaching art courses. She has presented her work in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad (Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Kilchen, Poznan, Belgrade, Moscow, Warsaw, Tokyo, etc.), and has participated in international events, including the Barcelona Biennale (1979), the Ljubljana Biennale (1995), etc.

In 2017 she held a large retrospective exhibition (ΣΤΟart art gallery, Athens) for her 60^th anniversary as an artist (1957 – 2017). She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.