Jemil Metti was born in Long Island, New York to an Iraqi father and a Hungarian mother who passed away when he was two months old. After two years of American boarding school commencing in 1954, he was transferred to Beirut, Lebanon for a one-year stint before ending up in Baghdad, Iraq in 1957.

After living there his entire teen years, he returned to the United States in 1970. Metti attended Northern Illinois University, S.U.N.Y.-Binghamton, and Wayne State University-Detroit to earn his B.A., M.A. and Ed.D. respectively.

Currently Michigan-based, Metti professionally worked in broadcast and print journalism, real estate sales and education. Though his professional focus had almost entirely shifted to education by 1978, he just couldn't stay away from writing, politics and global affairs. And thus began his bid to freelance for the Michigan-based Romeo Observer (1980-1981) and the Advisor Newspapers (1981-1990). Jemil Metti retired from teaching at the end of 2019. He is now a full-time writer.