Lopez was born in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, and is of Filipino descent， He became interested in songwriting from an early age (he wrote his first song at 7， He attended Hunter College High School and received a B.A. in English from Yale University, where he was a member of the Yale Spizzwinks\r In 1998, while participating in the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, he met another aspiring songwriter, Jeff Marx. Their first project together, Kermit, Prince of Denmark, a Muppet parody of Hamlet, won the Kleban Award for lyrics, though The Jim Henson Company rejected the script, saying it did not have enough "kid appeal， The story was considered for the next Muppet film by Chris Curtin in 2004, until Chris left the Disney Company. Highlights from the unproduced musical were performed by Rick Lyon, Rebecca Jones, and Susan Blackwell at the BMI Workshop.