Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki, born Steven Hiroyuki Aoki in Miami on November 30, 1977, grew up in Newport Beach, California, the son of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki and Chizuru Kobayashi. His half-siblings include model and actress Devon Aoki. He studied at UC Santa Barbara, earning degrees in women's studies and sociology, while running DIY shows out of his student housing room, known as the Pickle Patch.

He founded Dim Mak Records in 1996, naming it after the Bruce Lee "touch of death" reference, and used it to release punk and indie acts such as Bloc Party, the Kills, Klaxons and Mystery Jets before the label turned toward electro house artists like MSTRKRFT and the Bloody Beetroots. Aoki also played in bands including This Machine Kills and Esperanza.

His DJ mix album Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles came out in 2008, the same year he first played a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, which he repeated in 2012. Pollstar named him North America's highest-grossing electronic dance touring artist that year, reflecting a touring schedule that has stayed heavy ever since. He has released seven studio albums, starting with Wonderland, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album.

Aoki's live shows are built around cake-throwing and crowd-surfing on inflatable rafts, and his records carry an unusually wide list of collaborators, from will.i.am, Linkin Park and BTS to Blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Lil Jon, alongside remixes of artists such as Kid Cudi.

In 2019 he published a memoir, Blue: The Color of Noise, and founded the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, which raises money for global humanitarian relief organizations. In 2024, Gold House named him one of the year's Most Impactful Asians.