He later attended the University of Pennsylvania, from which he earned his Master of Arts in communications. Nirenberg attended Trinity University in San Antonio and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in communication. Nirenberg, who is Methodist, was raised in Austin, Texas. His maternal grandmother was Anglo-Indian, born to a Scottish father and an Indian mother, while his maternal grandfather was a Tagalog-speaking Filipino musician with possible roots in Mindanao. His Roman Catholic mother is half-Filipino and was born in Penang, Malaysia (then part of the colonial British protectorate of Malaya).
His paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States before World War II, passing through Ellis Island. Nirenberg's mother and father met while the couple was serving with the Peace Corps in Malaysia. Nirenberg is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (from Poland and Russia) on his father's side and of mixed Filipino, Malay, Indian, and British heritage from his mother's side.
