Orville Peck

Orville Peck, born Daniel Pitout on January 6, 1988, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is a country musician, recording artist, and stage performer known professionally under the Orville Peck name. He is widely recognized for performing while wearing a fringed mask that conceals his face. As of July 2024, Peck is based in Los Angeles.

Pitout spent his first fifteen years in Johannesburg before eventually relocating. As a child, he taught himself to play acoustic guitar and an old Casio keyboard, and he performed voice-over work for cartoons and other media, a pursuit connected to his father's career as a sound engineer. He also took ballet classes for twelve years and participated in musical theater productions during his youth. By his early twenties, he had completed national tours of musicals. In 2014, he moved to London to pursue a foundation degree in acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Two years later, he appeared in the Mischief Theatre production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre, playing the role of Jonathan Harris/Peter Pan.

Peck self-produced his debut album, Pony, releasing it in 2019 through Sub Pop. He has described writing, producing, and playing every instrument he could on the record while working at a coffee shop and living with his parents. Pony was longlisted for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize and received a Juno Award nomination for Alternative Album of the Year at the 2020 ceremony. That same year, he performed "Dead of Night" and "Take You Back" on CBC Radio One's Q, and later performed "Dead of Night" on Jimmy Kimmel Live on January 29, 2020. Also in 2019, Peck launched an annual event called Orville Peck's Rodeo, held in various cities across the United States and focused on emerging country artists.

His follow-up EP, Show Pony, was originally announced for June 12, 2020, but its release was delayed until August 14, 2020, in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement and the George Floyd protests. In June 2020, he recorded a cover of "Smalltown Boy" for Spotify's pride edition of its Singles series. His second studio album, Bronco, followed in 2022. After a self-imposed hiatus in 2023, Peck returned with Stampede in 2024, his third studio album and first duets album, released on Warner Records. The album's lead single, a cover of Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other," featured Willie Nelson and was released on April 5, 2024. Subsequent singles from the project included "How Far Will We Take It?" with Noah Cyrus, released in May 2024, and "Midnight Ride" with Kylie Minogue and Diplo, released on June 7, 2024. In support of the album, Peck headlined The Stampede Tour, which launched on May 28, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina.

Among his notable collaborations, Peck appeared on a duet cover of "Jackson" on American drag queen and singer Trixie Mattel's 2021 EP Full Coverage, Vol. 1. That same year, he contributed a country reimagining of "Born This Way" to Lady Gaga's Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary. In March 2023, he appeared as a guest judge on MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race alongside RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Ross Mathews, and he served as a coach and judge on My Kind of Country in 2023.

Peck cites a range of musical influences, including Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Bobbie Gentry, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, Oasis, Whitney Houston, and Lana Del Rey. He has also named film directors David Lynch and John Waters as influences on his work.

On March 31, 2025, Peck made his Broadway debut, taking on the role of the Emcee in the revival of Cabaret at the August Wilson Theatre. He appeared opposite Eva Noblezada, who played Sally Bowles. Peck is also set to make his film debut in an upcoming Street Fighter reboot, in which he will play the character Vega.

Among the honors Peck has received, Queerty included him in June 2020 on its list of fifty heroes leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity, published in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of the first LGBTQ pride parade. In June 2022, the Tom of Finland Foundation presented him with its Cultural Icon Award for artistic achievement and contributions to the art and culture of its community. Peck is openly gay.