Genis was exposed to literature and the arts from a young age, mixing with artists and intellectuals, including Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, Umberto Eco, Norman Mailer, Joseph Brodsky, and Czech film director Miloš Forman.

[2] Daniel's father and his collaborators edited Семь дней (Seven Days) (a weekly literary supplement to Новое Русское Слово) in the living room of his childhood home for a short time.

[3] Genis graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1996, along with other prominent classmates such as Harry Siegel, Jessica Valenti, and Kelly Karbacz.

Genis developed an interest during this time in antiquarian bookshops and specifically, eighteenth and nineteenth century editions of Greek and Roman classic literature.

[4] His tasks entailed setting manuscripts into digital versions and, after two years, Genis ended with an editing credit on The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film.

His taste for the illegal substance (costing Genis $100 per day) led him to embark on a string of robberies in order to pay his debts.

[6] The month-long robbery spree centered around the Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Gramercy Park, and the Financial District.

In a 2014 interview with Genis, after being released on parole, Alig said that his time spent reading while in solitary inspired him to write his memoirs, which he titled Aligula, and he particularly identified with the character Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

[1] Genis continued work on his 300-page novel after spending $275 on a Swintec typewriter (with clear plastic cases allowing easy inspection for drugs, weapons, or other contraband.

Genis wrote an article for Vice entitled, "New York State's Scariest Prison", concerning the escapees at Clinton Correctional Facility in June 2015.

[34] Genis became a contributor to the museum/art work that is Joe Coleman's '"Odditorium by offering a seven-inch pony tail he grew over seven years of incarceration.

[39] Manager Kirsten Bowen and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre reference Genis's article in their show, Lights Rise on Grace.

[41] Genis has written for numerous German, Russian, and Austrian newspapers, including The Moscow Times and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

[42] Further talk show appearances include speaking with KCRW on topics concerning "Cooking in Prison",[24] "Celebrating Thanksgiving: Stomach, Strategy, Leftovers and Lore",[43] as well as for the Texas radio program Walter and Johnson, WBAL's Morning News, Talkline with Zev Brenner on the discussion of "Jews in Jail", and Friendly Atheist Podcasts talk show.

[44] Genis's talk, titled "Why Terrorists Weep: The Socio-Cultural Practices of Jihadi Militant", brings attention to his writings on culture inside American prisons.

[46] The article was also paraphrased in Esquire[47] His feature on the unlikely winners of war with abstract opponents put Genis on the cover of Fräulein Intersections Magazin Numéro Homme in Berlin.

[52] In June 2003, five months before his arrest, Genis married Petra Szabo, a photographer and instructor of Vinyāsa and Forrest yoga.