Tao was a child prodigy. When he was 24, he was promoted to full professor at UCLA and remains the youngest person ever appointed to that rank by the institution. Both of his parents are Cantonese Chinese by ethnicity. His parents are first generation immigrants from Hong Kong to Australia. His father, Billy Tao (Chinese name Xiangguo Chinese: Cantonese Yale: tòuh jeuhng gwok; Pinyin: Táo Xiàngguó) is a pediatrician, and his mother is a Physics and Mathematics graduate from The University of Hong Kong, formerly a secondary school teacher of Mathematics in Hong Kong. She was reportedly also an exceptional mathematician.
His father told the press that at the age of two, during a family gathering, Tao taught a 5-year-old child mathematics and English. According to Smithsonian Online Magazine, Tao taught himself arithmetic by the age of two. When asked by his father how he knew numbers and letters, he said he learned them from Sesame Street. Aside from English, Tao speaks Cantonese, but does not write Chinese. He currently lives with his wife and son in Los Angeles, California. He has two brothers.
