Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz, born June 23, 1977, in Mechanicsville, Virginia, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and Broadway performer. Of partial Czech ancestry on his paternal side, Mraz grew up with his father after his parents divorced when he was five. His mother later became a vice president at a branch of Bank of America, while his father worked as a postal worker.

At Lee-Davis High School, Mraz participated in the cheerleading squad, school chorus, and drama club, taking on the lead roles of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Snoopy in Snoopy! The Musical. He graduated in 1995 and subsequently enrolled at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, where he spent roughly a year and a half training with the intention of pursuing musical theater. It was during this period that exposure to guitar-playing roommates, combined with a discarded guitar given to him by a friend, led Mraz to begin writing and performing his own music. He later relocated to the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, working odd jobs including elementary-school janitor and joining the Ashland Stage Company, before briefly enrolling at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, on a scholarship. Rather than attending classes, he traveled west and settled in San Diego in 1999.

Shortly after arriving in San Diego, Mraz became a roadie for the band Elgin Park and began performing weekly at Java Joe's, a coffee house in the Ocean Beach neighborhood previously associated with the early careers of Jewel and Steve Poltz. There he met percussionist Toca Rivera, who became a future band member. Mraz self-published several early recordings, including A Jason Mraz Demonstration (1999), From the Cutting Room Floor (2001), On Love, In Sadness (The E Minor EP in F) (2001), and the live acoustic album Live at Java Joe's (2001), recorded with Rivera and bassist Ian Sheridan. His final self-released album, Sold Out (In Stereo), appeared on March 21, 2002.

In late 2001, Mraz signed with Elektra Records and moved to Los Angeles. His major-label debut, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, was released on October 15, 2002, and peaked at number 55 on the Billboard 200. The album's commercial single, "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)," co-written with production team The Matrix, reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2003, becoming his first top-40 hit. A second single, "You & I Both," followed in June 2003, and the album was certified Platinum in May 2005. During this period, Mraz opened for Jewel on tour in 2002 and for Tracy Chapman at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2003. In 2004, he released the live album Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom, recorded with his touring band and featuring a guest appearance by Blues Traveler frontman John Popper.

Mraz's second major-label album, Mr. A-Z, produced by Steve Lillywhite for Atlantic Records, was released on July 26, 2005, and debuted at number five on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Wordplay," was produced by Kevin Kadish. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and Lillywhite received a nomination for Producer of the Year. In support of the record, Mraz toured extensively, opening for Alanis Morissette during her 2005 Jagged Little Pill Acoustic tour and for the Rolling Stones on five dates of their 2005–06 world tour. He also supported Rob Thomas on several dates of the Something to Be Tour and performed at Singapore's Mosaic Music Festival in March 2006.

His third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things., arrived in 2008, peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. Its lead single, "I'm Yours," reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent a then-record 76 weeks on that chart, ultimately earning Diamond certification from the RIAA. The album also produced the Grammy Award-winning singles "Make It Mine" and "Lucky," the latter recorded with Colbie Caillat. Love Is a Four Letter Word followed in 2012, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 and yielding the top-ten single "I Won't Give Up." Mraz subsequently released the top-ten albums Yes! (2014) and Know. (2018). After signing a three-album agreement with BMG in 2020, he released Look for the Good (2020) and Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023). As of July 2014, Mraz had sold over seven million albums and more than 11.5 million digital singles.

In addition to his two Grammy wins, Mraz has received two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award, and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. In 2023, he competed on season 32 of Dancing with the Stars, finishing in second place behind Xochitl Gomez.

Mraz made his Broadway debut in 2016, appearing in Waitress, adding a stage credit to a career that had its roots in high school theater in his native Mechanicsville, Virginia.