Jay Ford's parents are both natives of the Philippines, but they are from various islands. While his father was born and raised in the Mindanao region, his mother was from the Visayas.

He speaks Filipino, English, and Cebuano while attempting to learn various dialects as he travels.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from college and has been working in the translation industry for around 8 years. He began his career as a typesetter at a publishing company and worked there for more than 4 years. Later, he worked for a major firm as a DTP specialist.

As a typesetting specialist at Ethnolink, Jay enjoys dealing with linguistic and cultural challenges.