Born in Verona, Paolo Bacilieri studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. He has been working as a comic artist since 1982, when he cooperated with Milo Manara. In 1986 he created his story Il Tesoro degli Imbala with scriptwriter Franco Mescola, that was published in "Corto Maltese", as well as the French magazine À Suivre by Casterman. Casterman also published his comic about Barokko in 1988, that was subsequently published in his home country in Comic Art.
Bacilieri has mostly published in magazines from both Italy and France, such as "Blue", "Comic Art", "Corto Maltese", "À Suivre and L'Écho des Savanes". He has published several books with Edizioni Punto Zero (Patty Paradise), Black Velvet (Durasagra, Venezia über Alles) and Kappa Edizioni (two books starring Zeno Porno in 2005 and 2007).
Bacilieri was also on the art staff of the Bonelli series Napoleone, of which he has drawn three stories from scripts by Carlo Ambrosini since 1999. Bacilieri and Ambrosini continued their collaboration with the Bonelli series Jan Dix between 2008 and 2010. Casterman published Adiós Muchachos, the comic adaptation he made of the Daniel Chavarra novel with writer Matz, in 2011. In the following year, he made Sweet Salgari, a comics biography of Emilio Salgari, for Coconino Press.