Flea

Flea in 2007, photo by Prphotos.com

Birth Name: Michael Peter Balzary

Place of Birth: Burwood, Victoria, Australia

Date of Birth: October 16, 1962

Ethnicity: English, smaller amount of Irish, 1/16th Hungarian

Flea is an Australian-born American musician, actor, and voice actor. He is the bassist of rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was also a member of supergroup Rocket Juice & the Moon. Other members of Red Hot Chili Peppers include/have included John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Josh Klinghoffer, Dave Navarro, and Chad Smith. Damon Albarn was also a member of Rocket Juice. He is also known as Mike B and the Flea and Mikey B the Flea. His roles include the films The Blue Iguana, Back to the Future Part II and III, My Own Private Idaho, The Chase (1994), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Psycho (1998), The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Inside Out, Song to Song, Baby Driver, Boy Erased, Queen & Slim, Babylon (2022), and Arco, and the show The Wild Thornberrys.

Flea was born in Burwood, Victoria, Australia, the son of Patricia and Michael “Mick” Balzary. When Flea was five, his family relocated to Rye, New York, where his father worked at the U.S. Consulate. In 1971, his parents divorced, and then his father returned to Australia. His stepfather was a jazz musician. Flea and his siblings stayed in the U.S., where they were raised, moving to Los Angeles, California.

Flea is married to fashion designer Melody Ehsani. He has a daughter with his former wife Loesha Zeviar; a daughter with his former fiancée, model Frankie Rayder; and one child with Melody.

Flea’s paternal grandfather was Clifford Vincent Balzary (the son of Edwin Albert Balzary and Emma Jane Osborne). Clifford was born in Malvern, Victoria, Australia. His brother, Leonard Albert Balzary, had died fighting in WWI in September 1917, in Ypres, Belgium. Flea’s great-grandfather Edwin was the son of Albert Vincent Balzary, who was Hungarian, and had moved to Australia before 1853; and of Henrietta/Honoretta/Honora/Honoria Anna Leonoran Bentley, who was Irish, from Limerick. Flea’s great-grandmother Emma was the daughter of English parents, Richard Osborne, from Norfolk; and Eliza Hickmott, from Hackney, Middlesex.

Flea’s paternal grandmother was named Sylvia Eileen Mitchell.

Flea’s maternal grandfather was Jack Dracup (the son of Albert Dracup and Lily Midgely). Jack was born in Yorkshire, England. Albert was the son of Nathaniel Dracup and Emma Cooper.

Flea’s maternal grandmother was Muriel Florence Goddard (the daughter of George Thomas Goddard and Susannah Prior). Muriel was born in London, England.

A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2026) stated that Flea’s genetic ancestry consists of:

*68% England & Northwestern Europe
*14% Ireland
*6% Germanic Europe
*4% Scotland
*3% Cornwall
*2% Iceland
*1% Baltics
*1% Spain
*1% Central & Eastern Europe

Flea is sometimes said to have Aboriginal ancestry. No Aboriginal or Indigenous genetic ancestry appears on his DNA test.

Source: Genealogy of Flea – https://gw.geneanet.org