Hardy grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from George School in 1991.

Hardy resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Shaun, and their sons. Hardy dedicated his 2000 film Trois to his father, Robert, an investor in the movie and Rainforest Films, who died on Labor Day 1999 before the completion of the film. Hardy is a graduate of Florida A&M University and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Hardy has completed studies at the New York Film Academy and has earned many nominations and accolades, including the Bernard Hendricks Student Leadership Award from FAMU, which is the highest honor bestowed on a student; the Meritorious Achievement Award from FAMU, which is the highest honor bestowed on an alumnus and the inaugural Woody Strode/Paul Robeson Award of Excellence from his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

Rob Hardy began his career as a high school senior at George School with the camcorder-shot movie G-Man. While pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida A&M University, he made the leap to film with the low-budget motion picture Chocolate City. This experience earned him the institution's highest honor, the Bernard Hendricks Student Leadership Award, and helped Hardy and film partner william Packer (Will Packer) launch Rainforest Films. The underground buzz on the project soon led to his controversial film Trois. Hardy not only directed and co-wrote the thriller, he was also instrumental in self-distributing the project to be the fastest Independent African-American film to pass the $1 million mark. In 2003, after directing the critically acclaimed thriller Trois 2: Pandora's Box, he added the role of “Producer” to his credits by collaborating with Business partner Will Packer to produce Motives, and later, Trois: The Escort.

Hardy then wrote and directed the spiritually-themed drama The Gospel and produced the companion concert film The Gospel Live. Executively producing Mekhi Phifer's directorial film debut Puff, Puff, Pass soon followed. Next, he served as Executive Producer of Stomp The Yard, which held the No. 1 position at the box office for two weekends in January 2007 and was named Best Movie at the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards.. He went on to work on several other projects, including Stomp The Yard: Homecoming and Think Like a Man.

Since his 2008 dive into TV directing with ER, Hardy has worked on a variety of hit TV shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, The Vampire Diaries, 90210, The Game and The Flash and has begun directing commercial projects for clients, including CNN, TBS, American Honda, Coca-Cola, Georgia Lottery and The National Cancer Institute.

Along with Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, and Rainforest Films partner Will Packer, Hardy is co-founder of Bounce TV, a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans," Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011 and features programming geared toward blacks and African Americans in the 25–54 age range.

Hardy was nominated on January 9, 2014 for the 45th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series for his work on Criminal Minds.

In March 2015, Hardy launched Rainforest Entertainment. He announced that the new production company will focus on developing scripted and non-scripted content for film, television and digital platforms. Hardy hired Mitzi Miller to serve as Head of Development for the film, television and digital media production company and her offices will be based in Los Angeles.