Wolff was born on December 17, 1994, in Los Angeles, California, to jazz musician
Michael Wolff and actress
Polly Draper. and he is a cousin to TV personality and venture capitalist
Jesse Draper. and a great-grandson to banker and diplomat
William Henry Draper, Jr. His father is Jewish, while his mother is from a
Christian background, and Wolff was raised "
culturally Jewish." Wolff has
Tourette's syndrome that he inherited from his father. When he and his younger brother were toddlers, they climbed out of the bathtub and referred to themselves as "the naked brothers band", which inspired the name of the
Nickelodeon TV series. Wolff taught himself to play major and minor chords on the piano at the age of 4. As his father recalls, "I asked him, How did you learn them?' He said, 'Dad, they're right here.' I said, 'What are those chords?' He said, 'These are my proud chords." Around this age, his passion for
The Beatles emboldened him to start writing his own songs. Throughout the years he attended preschool, he, alongside his best friends, constructed a band As an 8 year old, Wolff placed a sign on his bedroom door stating: "I want to be a child actor!" In response, his mother appeased him by suggesting they film a
home movie titled ''Don't Eat Off My Plate
, which later served as the basis for The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie''. Despite the success of the subsequent Nickelodeon series over the course of three seasons, the network proposed to shoot a 30 TV movie fourth season during the school year, leading his parents to cancel the series in 2009. From the beginning, they were hesitant to expose him and his brother to stardom at a young age and later agreed to the series spin-off on the provision that filming would take place only during the summer and early fall, allowing him and his brother to proceed with their enrollment at private school in New York City. In 2008, Wolff, then aged 13, wrote a song called "Yes We Can" that was featured in the Nickelodeon TV series, as a tribute to
Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The song was overheard by Obama and his two daughters, who endorsed it and called him to express their gratitude. ==Career==