Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor Headshot

Musician • Composer • Singer • Songwriter • Record Producer

Birth Name: Michael Trent Reznor

Birth Date: May 17, 1965

Age: 59 years old

Birth Place: Mercer, Pennsylvania

Trent Reznor led two distinctly different (but both extremely successful) musical lives, one as the man behind industrial-rock juggernaut Nine Inch Nails and another as a composer of film music. He was born on May 17, 1965 in New Castle, Pennsylvania, he learned piano as a child and later played sax and tuba in school.

He began playing in bands while still in high school and quit college to concentrate on music, relocating to Cleveland in the process. He played with a number of bands and eventually got a job at a recording studio, where he had the opportunity to work on demos for what would become the first Nine Inch Nails songs.

He signed to TVT Records and released the first NIN album, Pretty Hate Machine, in 1989, charting low but earning Gold status. Likely aided by Reznor's appearances on the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991, the next album, 1994's The Downward Spiral, became a blockbuster. Eventually achieving quadruple Platinum status and spawning the hit "Closer," it broke Nine Inch Nails through to the mainstream and made Reznor an alternative rock icon.

That same year, Reznor made his first forays into Hollywood, working on the music for the hit film "Natural Born Killers." 1999's The Fragile proved to be similarly successful, reaffirming Reznor's continuing rock-star status. Thereafter, he would switch back and forth between film projects and Nine Inch Nails.

Though the next couple of Nine Inch Nails albums were successful, Reznor went indie with 2008's Ghosts I-IV, starting his own label, The Null Corporation. 2009 marked the debut EP of How To Destroy Angels, the group Reznor formed with his vocalist wife Mariqueen Maandig, Atticus Ross, and Rob Sheridan. They released an album, Welcome Oblivion, in 2013.

Nine Inch Nails returned to the major label world that same year with Hesitation Marks. The follow-up, Bad Witch, arrived five years later.

Credits

Song Exploder

Guest
Show
2024

ChallengersStream

Original Music
Movie
2024
88%

Queer

Original Music
Movie
2024
76%

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant MayhemStream

Original Music
Movie
2023
95%

The KillerStream

Original Music
Movie
2023
85%

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Original Music
Movie
2023

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Original Music
Movie
2023

Ninja Turtles : Teenage Years

Original Music
Movie
2023

Gary Numan Resurrection

Self
Show
2022

Empire of LightStream

Original Music
Movie
2022
45%

Bones and AllStream

Original Music
Movie
2022
82%

Danny Elfman & Trent Reznor: True

Music Performer
Show
2021

Halloween Alt

Music Performer
Show
2021

The Woman in the WindowStream

Original Music
Movie
2021
25%

SoulStream

Original Music
Movie
2020
95%

MankStream

Original Music
Movie
2020
83%

Soul

Original Music
Movie
2020

Soul

Original Music
Movie
2020

Hallown Classic Alt

Music Performer
Show
2019

Waves

Original Music
Movie
2019

Böse Nächte

Actor
Music
Show
2018

Mid90sStream

Original Music
Movie
2018
81%

Bird BoxStream

Original Music
Movie
2018
64%

The Defiant OnesStream

Self
Docuseries
2017
100%

Twin PeaksStream

Guest Star
Nine Inch Nails
Series
2017

Visions of Harmony

Original Music
Movie
2017

Patriots DayStream

Original Music
Movie
2016
80%

Score: A Film Music Documentary

Self
Movie
2016

Gone GirlStream

Original Music
Movie
2014
88%

CBS This Morning: Saturday

Guest
Show
2012

Q With Jian Ghomeshi

Guest
Show
2011

The Girl with the Dragon TattooStream

Original Music
Movie
2011
86%

The Social NetworkStream

Original Music
Movie
2010
96%

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

Actor
Movie
2010

Nine Inch Nails: Closer

Composer
Show
2008

Nine Inch Nails: Closer

Director
Show
2008

David Bowie Feat. Trent Reznor: I'm Afraid of Americans

Music Performer
Show
1995

SevenStream

Original Music
Movie
1995
83%

Natural Born KillersStream

Original Music
Movie
1994
50%