Travis Tatum Mills was born on April 12, 1989, in Riverside, California. At the age of 5, Mills' uncle gave him his first guitar and at the age of 15 Mills stopped playing Sports in order to start a punk rock band.

At the age of 17, Mills began writing songs in his own bedroom, using music's software such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro and Reason. At the age of 18, Mills began posting some of his music on his Myspace page. In 2008, Mills signed a deal to the indie record label Uprising Records.

In 2011, Mills signed a deal to Columbia Records, following him signing a deal, he began recording his second and first major-label album. On July 22, 2011, Mills released a mixtape, titled Leaving Home. Leaving Home is a 10-track project, with no guest appearances, while the production was provided from Noel Zancalla, Omen, AudioBlack, The Futuristics, Colin Munroe and Phonix, among others. On December 6, 2011, Mills announced that he would be repackaged as a 5-track EP, under its same name as his mixtape through Columbia Records. The EP's lead single, called "Vans On" was released on December 12, 2011, along with the promotional single, called "The Boom". The EP was made available for Retail stores on December 13, 2011. On December 15, 2011, to promote the release of the EP, he performed at The Roxy Show in Los Angeles, California. The EP was released for free on December 19, 2011, The EP was officially released on January 13, 2012, featuring some added new tracks, while the additional production was provided from Sir Nolan and The Stereotypes, among others.

In March 2012, Mills was nominated for the Best New Artist at the MtvU's Woodie Awards. On July 23, 2012, Mills released his second mixtape, called Thrillionaire. It contains 10 tracks, featuring three guest appearances from American Rapper Smoke DZA, the hip hop duo Audio Push, and an American musician James Fauntleroy II; as well as the production from Sledgren, The Monsters and the Strangerz and Kane Beatz, among others. To promote the mixtape release, Mills filmed some music videos for songs such as "Lightweight", "Diemonds" and "Other Bitch Callin'" featuring James Fauntleroy II. Mills later announced that he is planning on releasing the sequel for his second mixtape, called Thrillionaire 2.

In April 2013, Mills was touring with an fellow American Rapper Sammy Adams. On June 27, 2013, Mills was featured on Mike Posner's remix to "We Own It (Fast & Furious)", along with Sammy Adams and Niykee Heaton. In June 2013, Mills was on tour with We the Kings, and the fellow supporting acts The Ready Set and Breathe Carolina on the 2013's SummerFest. The music video for the single, called "All I Wanna Do", was shot and filmed in July 2013.

On February 18, 2014, Mills announced the release to his third EP, titled All I Wanna Do. Starting from February 24 to April 24, 2014, Mills will be headlining on his All I Wanna Do Tour. On February 24, 2014, while starting his promotional tour for his third EP, Mills released the audio to its title track "All I Wanna Do". The following day, Mills officially released the All I Wanna Do EP, via iTunes. The EP features production from Boi-1da and Malay, among others. In July 2015, Mills would change his stage name to his artistic name Travis Mills. On July 24, 2015, Travis released his new single, titled "Young & Stupid". The song features guest verse an fellow American Rapper T.I.

In March 2016, Travis made his acting debut in the Netflix original comedy series Flaked.

Travis Mills is heavily tattooed, which includes a full sleeve on one arm and a Bone Thugs-n-Harmony tattoo on his chest, in addition to many others. He also designated the letters "FTH" ("Fuck The Haters", "Forever The Highest") on his forehead, the "O" with a heart behind his left ear representing his sisters name and the word "Patience" tatted on his knuckles. Mills also got the word "Gnarly" tattooed across his stomach at age 18. A couple months after that he gave himself a tattoo. Travis is known for his large following on multiple social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Mills has been dating Actress Madelaine Petsch since February 2017.

Travis' music has been described as genre-bending due to his mix of singing and rapping, being mostly labeled as a hip hop and synthpop Artist. He is known for mixing pop and electronic songs with hip hop and R&B. Travis says that his genre blending music is a result of his exposure to many different genres during childhood. He said that "Mom was a huge Queen fan, my dad’s a diehard Elvis fan, my uncle is a hip-hop and R&B head, my sister listened to Britney Spears, country and boy bands and I was into pop punk, punk rock, metal and just into everything." He indicated that his rapping style was influenced by Kanye West and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, among others.