A native of Lyon, Roubiliac is said to have studied in Dresden with Balthasar Permoser, a sculptor of ivory and porcelain, and in Paris with Nicolas Coustou (Coustou, Nicolas), a French Baroque sculptor. He moved to London about 1730. His first independent commission was a statue of Handel for Vauxhall Gardens in 1737. A year later he opened his own studio. In 1746 he carved a monument of the duke of Argyll in Westminster Abbey, one of his greatest works, though his more dramatic Monument of Lady Elizabeth Nightingale (1761) in the same building is better known. Besides monuments and full-length portrait statues, Roubiliac executed masterly portrait busts, several of which were modeled in terra-cotta for a Chelsea pottery factory (c. 1750)—e.g., the busts of William Hogarth (Hogarth, William) and of Alexander Pope (Pope, Alexander).

Outstanding technically, Roubiliac's likenesses were also admired for their acute observation of the sitter and the perceptive revelation of character.