Moby.

Richard Melville Hall was born on September 11, 1965, in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood to Elizabeth McBride Warner, a medical secretary, and James Frederick Hall, a chemistry professor. His father nicknamed him Moby after the novel Moby-Dick, and Moby later claimed its author, Herman Melville, as his great-great-great-uncle. When he was two, his father died in a car accident, prompting a move first to San Francisco in 1969, then between Darien and Stratford, Connecticut.

At age nine, Moby began playing classical guitar and piano, later studying jazz, music theory, and percussion. In 1983 he joined the punk band the Vatican Commandos as a guitarist. He formed the post-punk group AWOL and released a self-titled EP under the name Moby Hall. After studying philosophy at the University of Connecticut and transferring to the State University of New York at Purchase, he dropped out to pursue a DJ career.

Moby transitioned from classical instruments to electronic music, starting as a DJ for college radio station WHUS. By the early 1990s he was a techno artist, with tracks featured on soundtracks for films including Cool World 1992, Heat 1995, Scream 1996, The Saint 1997, The Jackal 1997, and Tomorrow Never Dies 1997. In 1997 he released an album of his film music titled I Like To Score.

His biggest success came with the 1999 album Play, every track of which was licensed for television commercials or movie soundtracks, including Any Given Sunday 1999. This strategy propelled Play to become his most commercially successful album. His song Extreme Ways played over the end credits of The Bourne Identity 2002 and its sequels The Bourne Supremacy 2004 and The Bourne Ultimatum 2007. In 2002 he released the album 18, which came with 18 collectible art cards. He has co-written, produced, and remixed tracks for artists including Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno, Metallica, Britney Spears, and the Beastie Boys, and has recorded covers of Joy Division, New Order, and Duran Duran.

Moby is a lifelong vegan and animal welfare activist. He co-founded the vegan restaurant TeaNY in New York City with ex-girlfriend Kelly Tisdale. His later venture, Little Pine, a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, donates all profits to animal welfare causes. He also started the Little Idiot Collective, which combined a clothing store, comics store, and animation studio. A member of Peta, he has been an outspoken advocate for climate change awareness. Outside of music, Moby enjoys brewing different tea blends and cites his all-time favorite film as Inland Empire 2006. He is a childhood friend of actor Robert Downey Jr. and a friend of Australian model Sarah Juricak.

Moby brought electronic music to mainstream audiences with his 1999 album Play. That album revolutionized music licensing by placing all its tracks in commercials and films, a model later emulated by many artists. He has influenced many electronic musicians, and his music continues to be sampled and covered. In 2001 he gave the speech inducting Steely Dan into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2006 he presented Peter Gabriel with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Q Awards. He is remembered as a vegan activist who used his platform for animal welfare and environmental causes.