Ryan Leslie
American singer, songwriter and record producer
Ryan Leslie (born September 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and businessman. Working predominantly in contemporary R&B and hip-hop, he has released six studio albums and written songs for artists including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Diddy, Fabolous, LL Cool J, Kanye West and Usher, among others.
Leslie is credited with discovering singer Cassie Ventura in 2004, who signed to his NextSelection record label in a joint-venture with Sean Combs's Bad Boy Records two years later. Leslie wrote and produced her 2006 debut single "Me & U", which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); he did so on the entirety of her eponymous debut studio album (2006). In his own recording career, Leslie signed with Universal Motown Records to release his self-titled debut studio album (2009), which was met with moderate critical and commercial reception. It was supported by the singles "Diamond Girl," "Addiction" (featuring Fabolous and Ventura), and "How It Was Supposed to Be," and followed by his second album Transition (2009), which was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and his self-released third album, Les Is More (2012).
Outside of music, Leslie founded the direct text marketing service SuperPhone in 2015.
Early life and education
Leslie was born in Richmond, Virginia, and relocated homes frequently due to his parents' jobs as Salvation Army officers. Leslie graduated from Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California in 1994. He attended Harvard College, graduating at the age of 19 with a degree in government, concentrating in political science and macroeconomics.
The public source identifies “Ryan Leslie” as american singer, songwriter and record producer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ryan, Leslie and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1361271. VIAF identifies the subject as 81498206. The Library of Congress control number is no2009176330. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 2004, 2006 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ryan Leslie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.