Emil Dardak was born in Jakarta on 20 May 1984 as the eldest children of four siblings to an ethnic Javanese family hailing from Trenggalek, East Java province.

[3][4] In addition, Dardak participated in the 2018 class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, being the only Indonesian between the 40 mayors involved.

[9] After being regent, Dardak attempted to diversify the economy of Trenggalek, promoting tourism and encouraging investment programs in the area - which typically sees less investors than regencies in northern Java.

He later became running mate to Khofifah Indar Parawansa in the 2018 East Java gubernatorial election,[10] and the pair won with 10,465,218 votes (53.55%).

[14] Emil is married to a fellow actress Arumi Bachsin [id], who was of mixed Indo Eurasian-Bengkulu descent from Palembang, South Sumatra.