Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Giovanni "John" C. Esposito, an Italian stagehand and carpenter from Naples, and Elizabeth "Leesa" Foster, an African American opera and nightclub singer from Alabama.
When Esposito was six, his family moved to Manhattan. He attended Elizabeth Seton College in New York and earned a two-year degree in radio and television communications.