For fans of Emily the Strange, Rob Reger is a familiar name. Reger was born in 1969 in Anaheim, California. Reger earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1993. He earned his Master of Fine Arts also in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1995. Today, he lives and works in Berkeley, California.

Reger's literary credits revolve around the character Emily the Strange. In many cases, a brand begins to evolve around a character after it becomes famous. With Emily, the brand was there first. Emily is the recognizable brand character for Reger's company, Cosmic Debris, Inc. A friend of Reger's, Nathan Carrico, developed Emily in 1991. Reger used Emily the Strange in various t-shirt designs throughout the 1990s.

Emily the Strange's debut in print came with Reger's first hardback graphic novella, Emily the Strange, in 2001. Three more graphic novellas followed: Emily's Secret Book of Strange (2003), Emily's Good Nightmares (2004), and Emily's Seeing is Deceiving (2006). Starting in 2005, Reger began producing comics featuring Emily the Strange, with Dark Horse Comics. Four issues came out between 2005 and 2007: #1 The Boring Issue, #2 The Lost Issue, #3 The Dark Issue, and #4 The Rock Issue. Since March 2008, a monthly serial version has been out.

Reger reached an agreement with HarperCollins to produce a four book series featuring Emily the Strange. The first of these books, Emily the Strange: The Lost Days, came out in June 2009. The second, Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger, arrived in March 2010. The third, Emily the Strange: Dark Times, came out in December 2010. The final book in the series, Emily the Strange: Piece of Mind is scheduled for release in December 2012.

Reger drew inspiration for Emily's character in part from his own life. Emily's cat Sabbath was named in honor of one of Reger's cats by the same name. Like Emily, Reger was a cat in a past life. One of Reger's favorite pastimes is to create strange instruments and play them for fun. He has his own band, Thuja.