Rio Yañez was born in 1980 at San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, California to artists Yolanda Lopez and René Yañez.

[2][3] His parents separated after a few years but they remained as neighbors in the same building in the Mission District in San Francisco.

[3] Yañez attended California Institute of the Arts and received a BFA degree in 2005.

Rio and René Yañez collaborated on art for many years, starting in 2005.

[5] After his father passed away in 2018, Rio took up the role as co-curator of the annual Día de los Muertos in the Mission District.