Pharrell Lanscilo Williams, often known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician. He first became known as one half of the music production duo the Neptunes, which he formed with Chad Hugo in 1992. Fifteen of their productions have peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, which includes four songs that peaked atop the chart. The two also formed the alternative band N.E.R.D. with drummer Shay Haley in 1999, for which Williams served as lead vocalist. He has been considered one of the most influential music producers of the 21st century for his impact on popular music.
Heitor Teixeira Pereira, or Heitor TP, is a Brazilian composer. In his career, Pereira has recorded with the band Simply Red and several famous musicians, such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, k.d. lang, Milton Nascimento, and Jack Johnson; and currently works as a film score composer, as well as a musician at Hans Zimmer's studio, he is best known for being the composer of the Despicable Me franchise. Although primarily a guitarist, he also provided backing vocals live for the Simply Red song "Thrill Me". He also collaborates with film directors Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda, Raja Gosnell, and Cal Brunker.
The discography of Pharrell Williams, an American musician and record producer, consists of two studio albums, two extended plays (EPs), three mixtapes, 30 singles.
Despicable Me is a 2010 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal. The first feature film from Illumination, it was directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin and produced by Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy, and John Cohen, from a screenplay by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio based on a story by Sergio Pablos. Despicable Me stars the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Jack McBrayer, and Julie Andrews. The film follows Felonious Gru, a longtime supervillain who adopts three orphan girls to use as pawns in a villainous scheme but reluctantly develops an emotional attachment to them.
The 38th Annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation of 2010 was held February 5, 2011, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon was the big winner winning 10 out of its 15 nominations, sparking a big controversy over Disney and Pixar's boycott.
Despicable Me 2 is a 2013 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal. It is the sequel to Despicable Me (2010) and the second installment in the Despicable Me franchise. The film was directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, and written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, and Ken Jeong. The film follows retired supervillain Gru as he is recruited by secret agent Lucy Wilde to investigate the theft of a powerful mutagen by El Macho, a supervillain who seeks to achieve world domination.
Despicable Me: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, and it was released on July 6, 2010. It features new songs from the film written, performed, produced and/or composed by Pharrell Williams, and performances by Destinee & Paris, The Sylvers, Robin Thicke, The Bee Gees, and David Bisbal. A soundtrack album including the many other songs that appear in the film has been unofficially unreleased.
Minions is a 2015 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal. The film is a prequel to Despicable Me (2010) and the third installment overall in the Despicable Me franchise. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, and written by Brian Lynch, Minions stars the voices of Coffin as the titular beings, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, and Geoffrey Rush as the narrator. In the film, the Minions search for their replaceable evil master after, one-by-one, accidentally killing all their past leaders throughout history.
Despicable Me 3 is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, and distributed by Universal. It is the sequel to Despicable Me 2 (2013), the third main installment, and the fourth overall installment in the Despicable Me franchise. The film was directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by production and character designer Eric Guillon, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, from a screenplay by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Coffin, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, and Julie Andrews. In the film, Gru teams up with his long-lost twin brother Dru to stop Balthazar Bratt, a former child actor of the 1980s, from destroying Hollywood after his show was canceled years ago.
"Happy" is a song written, produced, and performed by American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams, released as the only single from the soundtrack album for the film Despicable Me 2 (2013). The song was first released on July 2, 2013 with the soundtrack, and it was released as a single on November 21, 2013, alongside a long-form music video. The song was reissued on December 16, 2013, by Back Lot Music under exclusive license to Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music. The song also served as the lead single from Williams's second studio album, Girl (2014). An official remix features American rapper Sky Blu of LMFAO.
Despicable Me 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the 2013 film Despicable Me 2; the sequel to Despicable Me (2010). The album was released on July 2, 2013, through Back Lot Music. The original music was composed by Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams, who previously scored for Despicable Me. The soundtrack to the film featured 24 tracks – eight songs and the remainder of the album, consists of original score tracks. Out of the eight songs, three original tracks, written by Williams, were featured in the album as well as the tracks "Another Irish Drinking Song", "I Swear" and "Y.M.C.A." were incorporated into the album. Besides that, two tracks from Despicable Me: "Fun, Fun, Fun" and the titular track is also featured in the soundtrack.
Minions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2015 film Minions, a spin-off/prequel and the third installment overall in the Despicable Me franchise, directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, the latter in his feature directorial debut. The original music is composed by Heitor Pereira who previously worked on Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013), where he composed the score with Pharrell Williams. Minions, however is the first film in the franchise, without the involvement of Williams and Pereira taking over the sole credit as the composer. The soundtrack for the film was released, alongside the film, on July 10, 2015, by Back Lot Music.
"Tokyo Drift " is a single by Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz. It features on the 2006 film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as the main theme and also features at the end credits. The song also appears in the band's second album Serious Japanese.
Despicable Me 4 is a 2024 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, and distributed by Universal. It is the sequel to Despicable Me 3 (2017), the fourth main installment, and the sixth overall installment in the Despicable Me franchise. The film was directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Patrick Delage, produced by Chris Meledandri and Brett Hoffman, and written by Mike White and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Sofía Vergara, Stephen Colbert, Renaud, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier, Chloe Fineman, and Will Ferrell. The film sees reformed supervillain and secret agent Gru relocate his family to a safe house when his old rival Maxime Le Mal seeks revenge. Subplots deal with Gru's family adjusting to their new lives, teenage neighbor Poppy Prescott trying to follow in Gru's villainous footsteps, and a group of Gru's Minions becoming superheroes.
A Man Named Scott is a 2021 documentary film centered on American musician and actor Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi. Directed by Robert Alexander, it was released on Amazon Prime Video on November 5, 2021. The title of the film, which is reminiscent of Cudi's 2008 breakout mixtape A Kid Named Cudi, is borrowed from his scrapped 2011 mixtape of the same name.
Despicable Me 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2017 film Despicable Me 3, the fourth installment in the Despicable Me franchise and the sequel to Despicable Me 2 (2013). Pharrell Williams produced the soundtrack album, and also contributed five original songs for the film. The other tracks consisted of several pop singles from the 1980s performed by Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nena, A-ha and few songs and themes from the previous installments. The soundtrack for Despicable Me 3 was released on June 23, 2017, featuring sixteen tracks, and was led by two singles – "Yellow Light" and "There's Something Special" – which was made available through digital download and streaming on June 8 and 13, prior to the album release. Heitor Pereira, who worked on the previous installments, had composed the film's music. Despicable Me 3 (Original Motion Picture Score), which featured Pereira's original score of 38 tracks, was released by Back Lot Music on June 30.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the soundtrack to the 2022 film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a sequel to Puss in Boots (2011). The album was released on December 16, 2022, by Back Lot Music, and featured musical score composed by Heitor Pereira, who replaced Henry Jackman, the composer of the first film. It featured five songs performed by Antonio Banderas, Dan Navarro, Gaby Moreno and Pereira, with his score accompanying the remainder of the album.
Piece by Piece is a 2024 American animated biographical documentary comedy film co-written, co-produced, and directed by filmmaker Morgan Neville in his animated directorial debut. It follows the life and career of American musician Pharrell Williams, who stars in the film, through the lens of Lego animation, or brickfilm. Produced by The Lego Group, Neville's Tremolo Productions, and Williams' I Am Other, Piece by Piece marks the sixth theatrical Lego-based film and the first under Universal Pictures' run of their film rights. Alongside Williams and Neville, the film stars the voices of Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg.
"Double Life" is a diss track written, produced, and performed by American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams. Originally previewed on Williams's YouTube channel on May 8, the song was released by Columbia Records as a single for the soundtrack of the film Despicable Me 4 on June 14, 2024.
Piece by Piece (Music from the Motion Picture) is the soundtrack album to the 2024 animated biopic of the same name co-produced and directed by Morgan Neville. Based on the life of American musician Pharrell Williams, the album consisted of 21 tracks—five original songs written and performed by Williams while the remainder of it consisted of existing tracks performed by other artists; this also includes Williams' older songs as well. The titular single from the album was released on September 13, 2024, and the complete soundtrack was released on October 11, 2024, through Columbia Records and I Am Other.
