Mika was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the third of five children born to an American mother of Syrian-Lebanese descent and an American father. When he was one year old his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris. After listening to Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" he wrote his first song, which he describes as an "awful" piano instrumental called "Angry". The family moved to London when he was nine years old. In London he then attended the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle where he experienced more severe bullying at school and had problems with dyslexia, so he was home-schooled by his mother for six to eight months. He then attended St Philips School in Kensington. He then attended Westminster School and the Royal College of Music, which he later left to record his first album.