Casablancas was born in New York City to business mogul John Casablancas,[REF] the founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen, a Danish former model and Miss Denmark (1965) [REF].
Casablancas met the first member of The Strokes, Nikolai Fraiture, while both were attending Lycée Français de New York (Fraiture graduated in 1997,[REF] Casablancas in 1996[REF]).