According to his birth certificate, Omar Lahyane was born on March 16, 1966, in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris. His family are Berber, an indigenous North African group. Akabouche said the family moved back to Morocco when he was young, and eventually lived in Germany for a short time. According to Akabouche, Omar always dreamed of coming to the United States and moved to Florida in 1991 to work as a performer at Disney World. After that, with his visa expired, he moved around for a bit, ending up in Philadelphia roughly 25 years ago, carving out a home among the residents at 45th and Locust.