Rachel Yurkovich was born in South Carolina, but lived most of her developing years in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Czech Republic.

She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2014. With an interest in living things and their movement as a medium, her work often ends up as video. Rachel was granted the 2014 First Agnes Gund Traveling Award, which allowed her to travel to Chernobyl, Ukraine for filming in the Spring of 2016. Shortly after returning, Rachel had a solo exhibition on display at the ROY G BIV Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Her videos have been exhibited in venues such as The Sculpture Center and SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri. Her work has also been featured in film festivals such as Echofluxx 15, in Prague, Czech Republic and the Davis International Film Festival in San Francisco, California.

Rachel is currently living in Cleveland, Ohio with her chickens, where she works at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.