Ryan Leslie

Anthony Ryan Leslie (born September 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur.

He has careers in recording, production, and songwriting for a number of prominent music industry artists in R&B, hip hop, pop and gospel.

Leslie has worked on commercially successful releases for Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Diddy, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Usher, and Chris Brown, among others.

Leslie graduated from Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California in 1994.

He attended Harvard College, graduating at the age of 19 with a degree in government, concentrating in political science and macroeconomics.

During Harvard's undergraduate Class Day ceremonies, Leslie was selected to be the Harvard Male Orator, one of four seniors who deliver orations to the graduating senior class.

Leslie grew up around music, playing cornet as a child in the Salvation Army band.

He taught himself how to play the piano, along with the ability to recite music, as well as arrange chords to create songs.

At Harvard, he joined the Krokodiloes, an a cappella group.

Leslie suddenly saw a new future for himself when a friend played him a Stevie Wonder CD freshman year, and began spending time at the on-campus recording studio.

While still a college student, Leslie began producing tracks for local Boston artists.

After graduating college, Leslie urged his parents to allow him to go into the music industry.

While living in Boston, Leslie worked community service jobs to help support himself and would spend nights in the recording studio working on his music.

Eventually, Leslie moved back home with his parents in Phoenix where he convinced them to take out a $15,000 loan for a production studio so that he could pursue music full-time.

In the summer of 2003, Ryan landed a production internship with producer Younglord.

Within the first week, Leslie produced the song "Keep Giving Your Love To Me" that would later be performed by Beyoncé for the Bad Boys II soundtrack.

The soundtrack was supervised by Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was impressed by Leslie's production style and offered him a management contract upon meeting him.

Under the management of Combs, Leslie worked on various Bad Boy Records projects, including releases from Loon, Cheri Dennis, B5, New Edition and Danity Kane.

During that time, Leslie co-produced a record for Britney Spears.

Also in 2003, Leslie was introduced by his then attorney Ed Woods to Tommy Mottola.

Mottola soon became a mentor of Leslie's and offered him a publishing deal with Aspen Songs and a recording contract with Casablanca, Mottola's imprint distributed by Universal Music Group.

In late 2003, Leslie began recording his debut album, entitled Just Right, and released two singles: "The Way That U Move Girl" and "Used 2 Be" (with Fabolous).

The album was never officially released due to creative differences between Leslie and his record label.

Leslie is credited with discovering R&B singer Cassie in 2004, who signed to his NextSelection record label in a joint-venture with Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records two years later.

Under the mentorship of Mottola and Combs, Leslie signed then-aspiring model Cassie Ventura to his imprint, NextSelection in 2005.

Leslie wrote and produced her 2006 debut single "Me & U", which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); he did so on the entirety of her eponymous debut studio album (2006).

Ryan Leslie returned to the studio in 2006 to record a new debut album.

The lead single, "Diamond Girl" was released in December 2007.

The video for "Diamond Girl" was premiered on BET's 106 & Park, and released on Leslie's YouTube channel with a special behind-the-scenes clip.

In November 2007, he released a video for a song named "I-R-I-N-A" that was produced in-house and released through his YouTube channel as well.

His second single, "Addiction" features pop singer Cassie, with a rap cameo from long-time collaborator, Fabolous.

The song was officially released in August 2008.

His third single, "How It Was Supposed to Be" was released with two music videos: a rock version and a military take on the song, which was Leslie's directorial debut and was co-directed by model Tyson Beckford.

In his own recording career, Leslie signed with Universal Motown Records to release his self-titled debut studio album (2009), which was met with moderate critical and commercial reception.

It was supported by the singles "Diamond Girl," "Addiction" (featuring Fabolous and Cassie), and "How It Was Supposed to Be," and followed by his second album Transition (2009), and his independently-released third album, Les Is More (2012).

The single was released March 23, 2009.

After many setbacks, his self-titled album, Ryan Leslie, was finally released on February 10, 2009.

Initially, Leslie had a four-album deal with Universal Motown, but he departed the label toward the end of that contract, saying "Universal was interested in reshaping my deal to more of a 360, and they actually made a counter-offer from the initial recording fund," Leslie tells Billboard.com.

Outside of music, Leslie founded the direct text marketing service SuperPhone in 2015.

Leslie was born in Richmond, Virginia, and relocated homes frequently due to his parents' jobs as Salvation Army officers.