Rhode Montijo received his BFA in Illustration from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1996. Thanks to a grant from the Xeric Foundation, Montijo was able to release his comic Pablo's Inferno to a wider audience.

He has also worked for many Mondo Media shows like Thugs on Film and The God & Devil Show. It was while working on Mondo that he meet Kenn Navarro and Aubrey Ankrum, and created the popular dark humored flash cartoon series, Happy Tree Friends. Rhode worked as writer, director and art director, and also did the voices of Lumpy and Splendid.

After five years working on the show, he officially left Happy Tree Friends in 2005 to focus more on his comic-book works and to rustle buffalo in Brazil. David Winn replaced him as the voices Lumpy and Splendid. According to writer Warren Graff he still remains friends with the whole HTF team.

Montijo enjoys working on various multimedia projects and has had an expressed interest in creating children's books which lead to the creation of the acclaimed Cloud Boy.