John Legend

John Legend has been married to model Chrissy Teigen since 2013. They met in 2006 while filming the music video for his song "Stereo," became engaged in 2011, and married in Como, Italy. His song "All of Me" was dedicated to Teigen and performed at their wedding.

Legend and Teigen have four children: daughter Luna Simone, son Miles Theodore, daughter Esti, and son Wren. They also lost a son, Jack, during a pregnancy complication in 2020.

Legend grew up in Springfield, Ohio, in a musical family. His father was a drummer, his mother directed a church choir, and his grandmother played the church organ. He began playing piano at four and performed with the church choir at seven. His mother homeschooled him during part of his childhood, and he skipped two grades because of his academic ability.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Legend served as president and musical director of the Counterparts, a jazz and pop a cappella group. He graduated magna cum laude in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in English, emphasizing African-American literature. While at Penn, he played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything."

After college, Legend worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group while performing in New York City nightclubs. He released the independent recordings John Stephens in 2000 and Live at Jimmy's Uptown in 2001, selling them at his shows.

In 2001, Devo Springsteen introduced him to Kanye West. Legend contributed keyboard parts, songwriting, hooks, and backing vocals to recordings by artists including West, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and the Black Eyed Peas. He became the first artist signed to West's GOOD Music and adopted the stage name John Legend.

His major-label debut, Get Lifted, arrived in 2004. Led by "Ordinary People," the album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and won Grammys for Best R&B Album, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and Best New Artist.

Legend followed Get Lifted with Once Again in 2006 and Evolver in 2008. "Heaven" from Once Again won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, while Evolver included the André 3000 collaboration "Green Light." In 2010, Legend and the Roots released Wake Up!, an album that won Grammys for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, with Legend also winning for the song "Shine."

His 2013 album Love in the Future produced "All of Me," which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of his most commercially successful songs. Legend and Common wrote "Glory" for the film Selma, winning the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song. Legend later released Darkness and Light, A Legendary Christmas, Bigger Love, and Legend. Bigger Love won the Grammy for Best R&B Album.

Legend expanded into acting and producing. He played Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018 and won an Emmy as a producer of the live special. He had earlier co-produced August Wilson's Jitney on Broadway, which won the Tony Award for Best Play Revival in 2017. The Emmy completed his EGOT, making him the first African American man to win all four major American entertainment awards.

Legend became a coach on The Voice in 2019 and won his first season with contestant Maelyn Jarmon. He has also appeared in projects including Soul Men, La La Land, and Crow: The Legend, and has served as a producer through Get Lifted Film Co. His public work has included the Show Me Campaign, the #FREEAMERICA criminal justice initiative, HUMANLEVEL, and education-focused organizations including Harlem Village Academies and Teach For America.