Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born on June 20, 1968, in San Antonio, Texas, into a large Mexican-American family. From an early age, he displayed a natural aptitude for visual storytelling, drawing comic strips and experimenting with his family's new video camera as a teenager. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied film and produced a series of short films and animated projects that showcased his do-it-yourself creative instincts.

His breakthrough came with the 1992 action film El Mariachi, which he wrote, directed, photographed, and edited on a budget of just $7,000. The film's gritty style and remarkable resourcefulness caught the attention of executives at Columbia Pictures, which acquired the distribution rights. El Mariachi went on to gross $2.6 million, making it one of the most profitable films relative to its budget in cinema history. The movie spawned two sequels that formed the Mexico Trilogy: Desperado in 1995 and Once Upon a Time in Mexico in 2003.

Rodriguez continued to build an eclectic and prolific career. In 1996, he directed the vampire crime thriller From Dusk till Dawn, written by his close friend and frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino. The film later inspired a television series adaptation, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series, which aired from 2014 to 2016. In 2005, he co-directed the neo-noir crime anthology Sin City alongside Frank Miller, based on Miller's graphic novels, and the pair reunited for the 2014 sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Rodriguez is also the creator of the popular Spy Kids franchise, which began in 2001 and introduced a new generation of young viewers to his work. His other directorial credits include The Faculty in 1998, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D in 2005, Planet Terror in 2007, Machete in 2010, Alita: Battle Angel in 2019, and We Can Be Heroes in 2020.

Beyond directing, Rodriguez is known for his hands-on approach to filmmaking, often serving as his own cinematographer, editor, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He has frequently worked from his home base in Texas and Mexico, operating his own studio, Troublemaker Studios. In December 2013, he launched the El Rey Network, a cable television channel aimed at English-speaking Latino audiences. He was married to producer Elizabeth Avellán, with whom he shares several children, and the two have collaborated on numerous film projects.