Questlove

Drummer, DJ, producer, director, culinary entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and member of The Roots – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, is the unmistakable heartbeat of Philadelphia’s most influential hip-hop group. He is the Musical Director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where his beloved Roots crew serves as house band. Beyond that, this 5-time Grammy Award winning musician’s indisputable reputation has landed him musical directing positions with everyone from D’Angelo to Eminem to Jay-Z.

Questlove has also released multiple books, including the New York Times bestsellers Mo’ Meta Blues and Creative Quest, Grammy-nominated audio book Creative Quest, Soul Train: The Music, Dance and Style of a Generation, James Beard Award-nominated somethingtofoodabout and, most recently, Mixtape Potluck.

Questlove and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of The Roots have executive produced the acclaimed documentary series, Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America on AMC under their production company, Two One Five Entertainment, which recently announced a first-look deal with Universal Television to develop scripted and non-scripted programming. Questlove will serve as executive producer for the upcoming documentary The League, centered on the tumultuous journey of Negro league baseball.

Questlove made his directorial debut with the acclaimed feature documentary Summer of Soul, which explores the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The film premiered on the opening night of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best U.S. Documentary. The film most recently broke the record for the highest selling documentary to come out of Sundance when it was acquired by Searchlight/Hulu. Questlove is also set to direct the upcoming Sly Stone feature documentary.

Questlove has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after DJs in pop-culture with a resume that includes gigs for the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the White House, Cartier, and hotels and nightclubs around the world. After streaming nearly 300 virtual DJ sets in 2020, he has used this momentum to launch his own Twitch show called GO DJ which champions sets from renowned international peers.

Additionally, Questlove served as the executive music producer and composer on the A&E miniseries Roots. He also scored Chris Rock’s film, Top Five and co-produced the Grammy Award winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton. Questlove also hosts his own acclaimed podcast “Questlove Supreme” on iHeart. Questlove co-starred in Disney Pixar’s Golden Globe-winning animated feature Soul, which landed him an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.