Short answers, pulled from the story.
RWBY was created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. The first episode premiered at Rooster Teeth's RTX convention on the 5th of July, 2013, and was posted to the Rooster Teeth website on the 18th of July 2013.
RWBY is derived from the first letters of the thematic colors assigned to the four main characters: red for Ruby Rose, white for Weiss Schnee, black for Blake Belladonna, and yellow for Yang Xiao Long. The name is pronounced "Ruby."
Monty Oum died in 2015 during production of the third volume. The remaining crew confirmed they would continue the series, with Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross taking over as the sole writers from Volume 4 onward. Following Rooster Teeth's shutdown in 2024, Viz Media acquired the RWBY intellectual property on the 5th of July, 2024.
Volume 9 of RWBY premiered on Crunchyroll on the 18th of February, 2023, under a one-year exclusivity deal. It was later released on the Rooster Teeth website on the 30th of March, 2024.
The question of whether RWBY qualifies as anime has been debated since the show's debut. Lindsay Jones, the voice of Ruby Rose, recalled that Japanese colleagues shown the series argued among themselves about its classification. Mainstream outlets including Variety and Entertainment Weekly have referred to it as an American anime.
Jeff Williams composed the music for the first eight volumes of RWBY, with most vocals performed by his daughter Casey Lee Williams. In December 2022, Jeff Williams announced his retirement, and Casey Lee Williams took over as lead composer starting with Volume 9, joined by Martin Gonzales of the band Ok Goodnight.