Simonian was born in 1978 in Aleppo, Syria to Armenian-Lebanese parents, whose ancestors were survivors of the Armenian genocide. His paternal grandfather was from the region of Cilicia (in present-day Turkey's Çukurova region). Simonian's parents were from Beirut, Lebanon, but "because of a civil war [his] mum had to flee and [he] happened to be born in Syria." Soon after his birth his family returned to Lebanon where they stayed until 1985 and moved to the United States due to the civil war there.