Alfred James Andriola was born on 24 May 1912 in New York City and grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey. He attended Cooper Union and Columbia University in pursuit of a journalism career. His fan letter to cartoonist Milton Caniff resulted in his being hired to assist Caniff and together they worked on the cartoons Terry and the Pirates and Scorchy Smith.

Andriola's first strip was Charlie Chan, a fictional Chinese American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers, an adaptation of the popular detective novels for the McNaught Syndicate that ran between 1928 and 1942. For five months in 1943 Andriola drew the minor superhero, Captain Triumph. After that he collaborated on the strip Dan Dunn with writer Allen Saunders who also wrote Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, and Mary Worth. Andriola is best known for his comic strip Kerry Drake created for Publishers Hall Syndicate. The strip was launched on 4 October 1943 with Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as an uncredited writer and it was cancelled after Andriola's death in 1983.

He served on several times on the Board of Governors of the National Cartoonists Society and on many committees. He was awarded the National Cartoonists Society T-Square Award in 1970 and the Reuben Award in 1971. He also drew the strip It's Me Dilly under the pseudonym Alfred James from 1957 to 1960.

Alfred James Andriola died in New York City on 29 March 1983. He once wrote: If I could do it over again, I'd want to be a writer…and I'd be damn glad if it turned out that I became a cartoonist!