Kaori Hanzawa is a Japanese manga artist born on April 2, 1985, in Fukushima Prefecture. She began her professional career at a young age, making her debut in 2000 with the manga "Ichigo Omelette♥" (Strawberry Omelette♥), which was published in Shueisha's Ribon Original magazine. At the time of her debut, she used the pen name written in kanji as "半澤香織," which shares the same reading. In December 2009, she announced on her personal blog that she would change her pen name to the hiragana spelling "はんざわかおり," which she continues to use for her published works.

Hanzawa is best known as the creator of "Comic Girls," a four-panel manga series that began serialization in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara MAX magazine in March 2014. The series follows Kaoruko Moeta, a fifteen-year-old high school student and aspiring manga creator who adopts the pen name "Kaos." After receiving a low ranking in a reader survey, her editor recommends she move into a special dormitory for female manga artists, where she roommates with peers who specialize in shōjo, teen romance, and shōnen manga. The series concluded its regular serialization on February 17, 2023, and was compiled into nine collected tankōbon volumes. "Comic Girls" was selected as a first-round candidate for the 2017 Manga Taisho awards, an annual competition that highlights lesser-known manga. The series was adapted into a twelve-episode television anime by Studio Nexus, which aired from April to June 2018, with Yoshinobu Tokumoto serving as director and Natsuko Takahashi on series composition. Hanzawa also drew an informational manga related to the series titled "Chaos-sensei no Atelier Tanbō ~Kirara manga no Tsukurikata~," in which she uses her own experience creating "Comic Girls" to illustrate the process of manga production for the magazine.

Beyond "Comic Girls," her bibliography includes "Kiruminzuu," a manga adaptation published by Shueisha in 2010 based on the anime "Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzū" with an original story by Shoji Kawamori. She launched a new series, "Idol e Back!" (Idol Return!), in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara MAX, with the first compiled volume released in February 2024. In the early 2010s, Hanzawa contributed extensively to anthology comics published by Houbunsha, illustrating short pieces for popular series such as "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," "Kiniro Mosaic," "Hanayamata," "Is the Order a Rabbit?," "New Game!," and "School-Live!" She also provided ending illustrations for television broadcasts of "Is the Order a Rabbit?" and "Mitsuboshi Colors," and contributed character designs for the mobile role-playing game "Kirara Fantasia," which features characters from various Manga Time Kirara series. Her early work "Ichigo Omelette♥" was published under her original kanji pen name and spans four volumes.

Hanzawa works predominantly in the four-panel comic strip format, a common style for comedic and slice-of-life manga, and her published titles are largely associated with the seinen demographic aimed at young adult men. Her most significant industry contribution is creating a popular manga about the life of a manga creator, a self-referential theme that offers insight into the professional struggles and daily routines of artists in her field. The successful anime adaptation of "Comic Girls" brought her work to a broader international audience and solidified her reputation as a creator within Houbunsha's influential lineup of manga artists.