Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member.
Reznor began his career in 1982 as a member of synth-pop bands such as The Innocent, Slam Bamboo, and Exotic Birds. The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was a moderate success but largely remained popular with underground audiences; the next two albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), brought the band widespread critical acclaim. There have since been eight more Nine Inch Nails albums and six EPs. Reznor has also contributed to the work of artists such as his protégé Marilyn Manson, rapper Saul Williams, and pop singer Halsey. Alongside his wife Mariqueen Maandig and long-time collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, he formed the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels in 2009.
Since 2010, Reznor and Ross have worked on numerous film and television scores, most notably for movies directed by David Fincher and Luca Guadagnino. These include Fincher's The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014), as well as Guadagnino's Bones and All (2022), Challengers (2024), and Queer (2024). Reznor and Ross won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and Soul (2020) and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Soul, sharing both awards for Soul with co-composer Jon Batiste. Reznor and Ross won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series for Watchmen (2019). The pair also scored Ken Burns's 10-part documentary The Vietnam War (2017).
