Matthew Christian Reinhart was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in September of 1971. His father joined the Navy when he was a child, and as such, his family moved across the country often, including Texas, California, Illinois, Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina. He was artistic as a child, carrying his sketchbook with him constantly and doodling more in his notebooks than writing in them during school.

When he graduated high school, Reinhart was worried an art-related job wouldn't be possible, and so he went to Clemson University in South Carolina to study Biology to prep for med school. After gaining his B.A, he took a gap year in New York City where he decided to follow his artistic dreams. Reinhart applied to and was admitted to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study industrial design with a focus on toy design. Afterwards he apprenticed with an acclaimed children's book author where he realized what he genuinely wanted to do with his art career was to be a children's book paper engineer, author, and illustrator.

Reinhart's first big accomplishment in the pop-up book world was his work "The Pop-Up Book of Phobias." After that, many collaborations and solo creations followed, such as a biblical retelling of The Ark, his New York Times best seller: Encyclopedia Prehistorica trilogy, and his best-selling pop culture work, Star Wars: Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy to name a few of the things Reinhart has worked on since then.