Leo Pando was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He graduated with a BFA in Art History and Criticism from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and a BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. By 1978 he was freelancing in New York city. His illustrations appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, McCalls Magazine, Psychology Today, and The New York Herald Tribune. Record company accounts include MCA Records and Atlantic Records. Advertising accounts include J. Walter Thompson and Doyle Dane Dernbach. Pando did post-production work on the concert/documentary, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones (1974) and the feature comedy Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982).

In 1989 Pando moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where, for three years he worked as a storyboard illustrator/assistant film editor at Great North Productions Inc. on the documentary In Search of the Dragon (NOVA, PBS). In 2010 he returned to Canada briefly to consult on and storyboard Code Breakers, a documentary for Clearwater Media Productions (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2011).

In 1991 Pando began a two-year hiatus from illustration to indulge his childhood love of horses. He worked as assistant barn manager at Keno Hills Stables, an Arabian horse breeding and training facility in Sherwood Park outside of Edmonton, Alberta.

Leo and his wife Diane Bowen live in central Maine where he worked as an illustrator/graphic designer until his retirement in 2010.