Steve Aoki
Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( ay-OH-kee, Japanese: [çiɾoꜜjɯki aoki]; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as one of the Most Impactful Asians. He has collaborated with artists such as will.i.am, Alan Walker, Afrojack, LMFAO, Tini, Linkin Park, AGNEZ MO, Iggy Azalea, Grandson, Lil Jon, Blink-182, Taking Back Sunday, Laidback Luke, BTS, Monsta X, (G)I-dle, Louis Tomlinson, Backstreet Boys, Rise Against, Vini Vici, Lauren Jauregui, and Fall Out Boy and is known for his remixes of artists such as Kid Cudi. Aoki has released seven studio albums to date, including several Billboard-charting albums. His debut studio album Wonderland was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2013. In 2019, Aoki published a memoir, Blue: The Color of Noise. He is the founder of the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, which raises money for global humanitarian relief organizations.
Aoki was born in Miami, Florida, but grew up in Newport Beach, California. He is of Japanese descent, the third child of Rocky Aoki and Chizuru Kobayashi. His father was a former wrestler who also founded the restaurant chain Benihana. His elder siblings are sister Kana Grace and brother Kevin (owner of Doraku Sushi restaurant). They have three half-siblings, including model and actress Devon Aoki. Aoki graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1995, where he was a player on the varsity badminton team. He later attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, graduating with two B.A. degrees: one in women's studies and the other in sociology. During college, Aoki produced DIY records and ran underground concerts out of his Biko room in the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, which was located in Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB. As a concert venue, the apartment became known as The Pickle Patch. Aoki was also involved in student activism at UCSB, being the founder of a Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League chapter on campus. By his early 20s, Aoki had built his own record label, which he named Dim Mak – a reference to his childhood hero, Bruce Lee.