Raised in Santa Rosa, California, Rick Farmiloe initially moved to Southern California in 1978 to attend the California Institute of the Arts, but was offered a job at Filmation Studios. After accepting the job, he began working on many different projects such as Fat Albert, Mighty Mouse, Quacula, Tom & Jerry, Zorro, Sport Billy and Flash Gordon.

In 1981, he was offered a job as an Assistant Animator at Walt Disney, where his first feature project was, The Black Cauldron. After completing this project, Rick was promoted to Animator and where he animated on such movies as, The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company as well as "Disney Renaissance" films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.

After Aladdin, Rick left Disney to pursue other opportunities, and was subsequently hired by Jeffrey Katzenberg to be the first animator for Dreamworks where he was a Directing Animator on The Prince of Egypt, and storyboard artist for Shrek.

Rick also helped animate the feature films of Curious George and The Simpsons.