She was born as Layla Soudavar, into an Iranian-American family.She is related to Farah (née Diba) Pahlavi, the former Shahbanu (Empress) of homeland.Layla S. Diba holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (NYU).
From 1975 to 1979, Layla Diba was the founding director of Negārestān Museum , a public collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century persian painting, based in capital. She was the first woman museum director in capital. The museum was shut down during the 1979 Revolution. The Negarestan Museum was established by Queen Farah Pahlavi to promote the Persian art of the 18th and 19th-century.
