RedOne

He lives with his 2 year old son, Daniel and his wife, Laila Khayat, in Los Angeles, CA. In 2011, he created ‘The 2101 Foundation’, a non-profit organization dedicated to reaching out to the disadvantaged youth and providing them with inspiration to pursue music, education and the arts.

He was born Nadir Khayat on April 9, 1972 in Tétouan, Morocco as the youngest of nine children. Growing up in Morocco, he was exposed to music that originated from his native Africa, as well as Europe and the United States.

His brother purchased a cassette of Europe's song, ‘Final Countdown’ for him. This inspired him to learn how to play guitar and start a band. At age 19, he and his best friend Redouan (The name ‘RedOne’ is a tribute) moved to Sweden to pursue a music career.

Though he stayed with a friend of his brother in Stockholm for a while, RedOne was eventually homeless. He sold vegetables outdoors and washed dishes, all for the equivalent of $40 a week.

Eventually, after a record deal had gone bad, he accepted that he failed as a rock singer, and decided to pursue a computer studies degree to pay the bills.

In 1995, after experimenting with computer technology, he decided that he wanted to learn the business of creating music with a computer.

In 1996, he showed Rami Yacoub, another former rock musician, a demo that he had produced. Yacoub had been a producer for years and he was impressed with the demo; inviting RedOne to work with him.

RedOne produced Lady Gaga's debut album 'The Fame' which was a commercial success and topped the charts in several countries. It peaked at number two on the 'Billboard 200' in the United States, where it sold 4.572 million copies. It is the seventh best-selling digital album in history.