Bonita Flanders grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island, where she attended Cranston Public Schools and earned scholarships to the Junior School of Rhode Island School of Design. She attended one year at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School before transferring to RISD. There she was a member in a band and flirted with filmmaking while studying sculpture and painting. Since her graduation from RISD, Flanders has built a career in set design, art production, and photography. Her projects include Club Genius, Rhode Island's first cable TV show, movies such as A Wake in Providence and A Matter of Degrees, and plays for Trinity Repertory Theatre.