Touraj Daryaee was born in Tehran, Iran in 1967. His elementary and secondary schooling was in Tehran, Iran and Athens, Greece. Daryaee took his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999. He specializes in the history and culture of Ancient Persia. His most recent articles include: "History, Epic, and Numismatics: On the Title of Yazdgerd I (Rāmšahr)," Journal of the American Numismatic Society, vol. 14, 2002(2003), pp. 89-95; "Gayōmard: King of Clay or Mountain? The epithet of the First Man in the Zoroastrian Tradition," Paitimāna, Essays in Iranian, Indo-European, and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt, Mazda Press, 2003, pp. 339-349; "Sight, Semen, and the Brain: Ancient Persian Notions of Physiology in Old and Middle Iranian Texts," The Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 30, nos. 1&2, 2002, pp. 1-26; "The Changing 'image of the World': Geography and Imperial Propaganda in Ancient Persia," Electrum, Studies in Ancient History, vol. 6, 2002, pp. 99-109. His books include Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic, and History, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, 2002; History & Culture of the Sasanians, Qoqnoos Press, Tehran, 2003; and Mēnōg ī Xrad: The Spirit of Wisdom, Essays in Memory of Ahmad Tafazzoli, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, 2003. He is also the editor of the Nāme-ye Irān-e Bāstān, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies.