Theresa Lee Duncan was born in Lapeer, Michigan to Donnie and Mary Duncan She had a sister, Deanna and a brother, Scott Duncan was a writer, filmmaker, and computer-game creator who became known in the 1990s for developing graphic adventure games for girls, notably Chop Suey She lived with Jeremy Blake in Los Angeles until 2007, when she and Blake moved to Manhattan On her blog, Duncan listed her interests as "film, philology, Vietnam War memorabilia, rare and discontinued perfume, book collecting, philately, card and coin tricks, futurism, Napoleon Bonaparte, the history of electricity"