Phil Wickham

Phil Wickham has been married to Mallory Plotnik since 2008. They have four children: three daughters, Penelope, Mabel, and Lottie, and a son, Henry.

Wickham grew up in a Christian musical family. His parents, John and Lisa Wickham, were worship leaders, and his siblings are Evan Wickham and Jillian Wickham.

Wickham began leading worship for the youth group at Maranatha Chapel when he was 13. His parents encouraged him to learn praise songs and write his own music. He graduated from Calvary Christian School in Vista, California, in 2002.

At 19, Wickham was considering joining a mainstream band with friends while also developing his solo worship music. During a storm at an outdoor festival in the United Kingdom, he was asked to perform while the event was reorganized. When the power failed, he led the crowd in singing "I Love You Lord," followed by an hour of spontaneous worship. The experience reinforced his decision to focus on leading worship.

Wickham began his full-time music career in 2003 by touring California and recording Give You My World. He later released the self-titled Phil Wickham in 2006, followed by Cannons in 2007, Heaven & Earth in 2009, Response in 2011, and The Ascension in 2013.

"This Is Amazing Grace," from The Ascension, became a major worship song. It received Platinum certification from the RIAA and topped the 2014 year-end Christian Airplay chart. The Ascension reached No. 39 on the Billboard 200, his highest position on that chart.

His later albums include Children of God in 2016, Living Hope in 2018, Christmas in 2019, Hymn of Heaven in 2021, I Believe in 2023, and Song of the Saints in 2025. Living Hope became his first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.

The album Living Hope grew from Wickham's work as part-time staff at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, where he led worship and wrote songs for the congregation. He approached the project as a collection of songs intended to serve the church community rather than only as personal expression.

Wickham co-wrote the title song "Living Hope" with Brian Johnson of Bethel Music, exchanging lyrics and voice memos through text messages. The album also included work with Chris Tomlin, Mack Brock, Kristian Stanfill, and Jonas Myrin, and involved 18 other songwriters and six producers.

His association with Harvest Christian Fellowship also connected his songwriting with pastor Greg Laurie and the annual Harvest Crusade. Laurie asked Wickham to write "Revive Us Again" for the event and helped inspire the song "Till I Found You."

Wickham has toured churches and worship events around the world. He joined MercyMe and Audio Adrenaline for the Coming Up to Breathe tour from late 2006 to early 2007, then toured with the David Crowder Band and The Myriad on the Remedy tour in late 2007. He later joined Brandon Lake for the Summer Worship Nights Tour in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

At the GMA Dove Awards, Wickham won Worship Recorded Song of the Year for "Living Hope" in 2019. He later won Worship Album of the Year for Hymn of Heaven, Worship Recorded Song of the Year for "Hymn of Heaven," and Songwriter of the Year, Artist, at the 2022 awards. I Believe won Worship Recorded Album of the Year in 2024.

Wickham voiced King David in the animated biblical film David, released in 2025. He has also appeared in or contributed to projects including Worship Night in America, Breakthrough, and Christmas with the Chosen.

On April 28, 2014, Wickham underwent surgery to remove a polyp from the folds of his vocal cords. He was prescribed a month of silence so the surgical site could heal.

The procedure left him uncertain about whether he would sing again and prompted a period of self-doubt about his identity as an artist. The spiritual reflections that followed influenced the songs and themes of his 2016 album Children of God.