Bioactive, synthetic materials represent next-generation composites for tissue regeneration. Design of contemporary materials attempts to recapitulate the complexities of native tissue; however, few successfully mimic the order in nature. Recently, graphene oxide (GO) has emerged as a scaffold due to its potential for bioactive functionalization and long-range order instilled by the self-assembly of graphene sheets. Chemical reduction of GO results in a more compatible material with enhanced properties but compromises the ability to functionalize the graphenic backbone. However, using Johnson-Claisen rearrangement chemistry, functionalization is achieved that is not liable to reduction. From reduced Claisen graphene, we polymerized short homopeptides from -amino acid N-carboxyanhydride monomers of glutamate and lysine to result in functionalized graphenes (pGlu-rCG and pLys-rCG) that are cytocompatible, degradable, and bioactive. Exposure to NIH-3T3 fibroblasts and RAW 264.7 macrophages revealed that the materials are cytocompatible and do not alter important sub-cellular compartments. Powders were hot pressed to form mechanically stiff (E ′ : 41 and 49 MPa), strong (UCS: 480 and 140 MPa), and tough (U T : 2898 and 584 J m −3 × 10 4 ) three-dimensional constructs (pGlu-rCG and pLys-rCG, respectively). Overall, we report a robust chemistry and processing strategy for facile bioactive functionalization of compatible, reduced Claisen graphene for three-dimensional biomedical applications.