Johnny was born in a Telugu Christian family, His mother tongue is Telugu.^[6] He is the eldest in the family consisting of three sisters and two brothers (including his younger brother Jimmy Moses). Lever studied in Andhra education society English high school^[7] till the seventh grade but couldn’t study further because of financial problems in his family. He decided to leave school and started working odd jobs, such as selling pens on the streets of Mumbai by imitating Bollywood stars and dancing to the songs of Bollywood stars. He also spent his early years in Yakutpura, an old city of Hyderabad where he learnt the unique style of comedy acting.