[3] Much of his maternal family immigrated to the United States around the same time as his mother, including his uncle, Spanky Rigor, who was a member of the famous Manila sound group VST & Company before moving.
[6] He received his bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of San Diego, where he was a defensive back on the football team.
[9][10] Samaha's debut book Never Ran, Never Will focused on the Mo Better Jaguars, a youth football team in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
[6] The book received a starred review from Booklist,[11] and Samaha won the 2019 New York Society Library Hornblower Award.
[12] Samaha published an essay for Buzzfeed News on the election of Rodrigo Duterte that informed the direction of his second book, a memoir called Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes.