He was born in Pisa. In 1968 Ortolani moved to Parma, where he still lives with his wife Caterina and his adoptive daughters Johanna and Lucy Maria. From an early age, Ortolani showed a great passion for the world of comic books, and in particular The Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, which will affect its style of narrative. After finishing high school, he enrolled at the University of Parma to study Geology. While at university, Ortolani draws his characters first, and the theme of geology became a catchphrase of the first issues of his major work, Rat-Man.
In 1989 joined publishing house Comic Art to work on two stories: the tragic and the other comic. Publisher Rinaldo Traini published the comic story on the second Spot, marking the Birth of Rat-Man. The shocking origins of Rat-Man earned Ortolani an award for best newcomer by Lucca Comics of 1990. With this visibility, Leo began to collaborate with magazines and independent fanzines. For the fanzineMade in USA he created two more stories starring Rat-Man and several parodies of superheroes. The most important works of this cycle are his four parodies of the Fantastic Four. Kirby stopped drawing Fantastic Four at issue #102. Ortolani wrote numbers 103-106, completely upsetting the group. Called to military service in the Air Force, Ortolani drew inspiration from life in the barracks, gathering his experiences in a detailed diary that became the starting point for The last rookie, a strip on military life which were published as an appendix to Storm Trooper. During this period, Ortolani also collaborated on the Starcomìxhumor magazine directed by Luca Boschi and published by Star Comics in Totem Comic and Totem Extra, where he made The impervious, Clan, The wonder of nature and The wonders of technology. In this period he also stripped the series Those of Parma, published in the Gazzetta di Parma, speaking of the city of Parma and its inhabitants, a selection of which was collected in the volumeEditions Bands Dessinée. The short stories of the series of Wonderland were taken years later, collected in three volumes by Panini Comics.
Ortolani created several popular parodies of famous works of fiction and blockbusters in his Rat-Man stories. In 1999 Leo Ortolani created Star Rats, a parody of Star Wars. In 2004 he created Il Signore dei Ratti, a parody of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2005 Ortolani published Star Rats - Episodio I, a parody of ', which was the best selling Panini Comics book in the release month. In 2007 Ortolani created 299+1, a parody of 300 and one of his best works. In 2009 he created Ratto, a parody of Rambo films. In 2010 he published Avarat, a parody of Avatar. In 2011 Leo Ortolani created La Quadrilogia dei Sacrificabili, a parody of The Expendables series, that won the award "Fede a strisce 2011" at RiminiComix. In 2012 he created Il Grande Magazzi, a parody of Harry Potter and Twilight series. That same year he published also Allen, a parody of Alien. In 2014 Leo Ortolani published Star Rats - Episodio II, a parody of ', and then soon after in 2015 he published also Star Rats - Episodio III, a parody of .
The end of the series ''Rat-Man''
In 2016 Ortolani stated his intention to close the series Rat-Man with issue #122, which was published around September 2017.
