Michel Kichka was born in 1954 in Liège, Belgium. His family survived the concentration camps of World War II. After his first year studying architecture in 1973 in Liège, he moved to Israel, and in 1974 joined the Academy of Fine Arts “Bezalel” in Jerusalem on a graphic design course. After graduating in 1978, he worked as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and children’s books.

He became a teacher of illustration and press drawing at Bezalel in 1982. In 1997, he turned to television and became a political cartoonist for Israel’s channel 2. In 2009 he received the “Dosh Award” prize for his work as an illustrator in Israel. His drawings have been published in international journals such as “Courrier International”, “Herald Tribune” and “L’Arche,” as well as at TV5 Monde and on all sorts of websites. Michel Kichka has also invested heavily in charities such as “Cartooning for Peace” alongside Plantu.

He is the technical advisor for the Cartoon Museum in Holon (near Tel Aviv). He now lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their three children.