Joël was born and raised in France, where he grew up in a small town north of Paris. 

After high school he moved to the United States to pursue college tennis. Joël moved to Hawaii in 2017 to take on the assistant men’s tennis coach position at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where he is now the head men’s tennis coach. Prior to his career in Hawaii, he coached at the California Tennis Club in San Francisco.

Joël's mother, father, and sister continue to live in France where he tries to visit once a year.