Rafael Ávila was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1975. He majored in Illustration and Fine Art Drawing, earning his BFA from the Maryland Institute. Some of his illustration clients include the SOURCE Weekly, Main Street Rag Publishing, IMPACT Press, Backwards City Review, Razorcake Magazine, Prairie Journal Trust, The Mystery Review, Potpourri Magazine, Rosebud Graphic Classics, The Cafe Review, and Gilah Press and Design. He has also done work for local rock bands, storyboards for a Baltimore advertising company, and is often immersed in his graphic novel--Naked Soul. Comic books, narrative song lyrics and German Expressionism are his greatest influences. He teaches drawing classes at Pennsylvania
College of Art and Design.