Leo Bersamina was born in San Francisco, California and grew up surfing and fishing on the coast, just south of the city. Bersamina began studying art and design in Santa Cruz, California later attending San Francisco State University to finish his BA with an emphasis in Studio Art. He received an MFA in Painting at Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut.
Bersamina has also lived in New York. NY  and Los Angeles, CA. Along with his extensive studio practice, Bersamina has also taught Studio Art at Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art and Diablo Valley College (where he currently is a tenured instructor). Bersamina continues to exhibit nationally and internationally, with his works being found in many corporate and private collections, including the Oakland Museum, Google, Capital One Bank, Microsoft, Swiss Bank, and The Gap, amongst others. Bersamina currently resides just north of San Francisco in Marin.