Select a letter to find a celeb
will.i.am
Name: will.i.am
DOB: 15 March 1975
Birth Place: Inglewood, CA, USA
Claim to fame: Black Eyed Peas rapper and producer
Star Facts
- The first track will.i.am officially recorded was called Merry Muthaf*ckin’ Xmas
- He went to the same high school Jeff Bridges, Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Jason Leigh
- The Black Eyed Peas used to be called Atban Klan, and Black Eyed Pods
- Will.i.am wrote My Humps in 5 minutes when he saw a hot babe while he was eating lunch
Biography
Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am was raised by his single mum in the projects of East LA. At high school, he met future Black Eyed Pea Allan Pineda, apl.de.ap, and they started writing together. They formed a band called Atban Klann and started getting gigs in clubs. At one of their gigs, the rapper Eazy-E saw them perform and liked what he heard, signing them to his label Ruthless Records in 1991.
Changing their name to Black Eyed Peas, the band’s first two albums did OK, but it wasn’t until will.i.am signed up Fergie in 2003 that things started to take off. Recording their third album Elephunk at the time, Fergie added vocals and it became the first Black Eyed Peas big hit. The lead single Where is the Love? debuted at number 1 in the UK. Three Top 10 albums followed, along with six Grammy’s, and twelve Top 10 singles, with five of them topping the UK singles chart.
Alongside the Peas, anybody who’s anybody’s had a single ‘feat. will.i.am’, including Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, U2, Rihanna, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj and Cheryl Cole.
Branching out into acting, will.i.am’s starred as John Wraith in the 2009 prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in the hit rom-com Date Night alongside Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, as well as lending his voice to Disney’s Madagascar movie series.
As or ladies, will.i.am used to date Natalie Imbruglia and more recently sparked an are-they-or-aren’t-they rumour with the lovely Cheryl Cole.