 His father, Hakam S. Modjo, was a native of Limboto, Gorontalo and a professor of plant pathology at the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.From his father's lineage, Duta is a descendant of Kyai Mojo, a well-known Javanese Muslim cleric who fought alongside Diponegoro during the Java War and was exiled to the northern mountains of Sulawesi.Duta was born in Lexington while his father pursued his graduate studies at the University of Kentucky.