Benji Schwimmer was born on January 18, 1984, in Newport Beach, California.
After being shown a video of the winning performance from the 2005 series of So You Think You Can Dance, Schwimmer decided to audition for the 2006 season of the show, along with cousin (and childhood dance partner) Heidi Groskreutz and her former dance partner, Dmitry Chaplin.