About Elle King

Tanner Elle Schneider , known professionally by her stage name Elle King, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and actress. Her musical style is influenced by country, rock, and blues.

In 2012, King released her debut EP, The Elle King EP, on RCA; one track from that EP, "Playing for Keeps", is the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series.

She released her debut album, Love Stuff, in 2015. It produced the US top ten single "Ex's & Oh's", which earned her two Grammy Award nominations. King has also toured with acts such as Of Monsters and Men, Train, James Bay, The Chicks, Heart, Joan Jett, Michael Kiwanuka, and Miranda Lambert. Her parents are actor and comedian Rob Schneider and former model London King. She uses her mother's surname to distinguish herself and her career and identity from her father's, telling ABC News that "I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself: that I am my own person."

King is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, two each in the rock and country categories, and received honors from the Country Music Association Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards.

King was born Tanner Elle Schneider on July 3, 1989, in Los Angeles County, California, to American comedian and actor Rob Schneider and American model London King. Her parents divorced when she was an infant and she and London moved to Ohio. She was raised in Columbus and Wellston. Her mother remarried Justin Tesa in 2000. When she was nine, her stepfather, Justin Tesa, gave her a record by all-female hard-rock band the Donnas; she views this as the pivotal moment when she decided she wanted to be a musician. Around this time, she also started listening to the Runaways and Blondie, and she made her acting debut alongside her father in the movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.

At the age of 13, King started playing guitar, immersing herself in the music of Otis Redding, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, AC/DC , and Earl Scruggs. Her interest in the country and bluegrass of Hank Williams and Earl Scruggs inspired her to learn the banjo. During her teenage years, she attended Buck's Rock camp in Connecticut, where she starred successfully in a number of musicals.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Elle King", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.