Biography
Whether he was going by the name Puffy, Puff Daddy, or P. Diddy, the multi-talented music and TV mogul Sean Combs always seemed to be exploring a new venture-with a better than average chance of success. Born in Harlem in 1969 but raised in Washington Heights, New York, Combs first began interning at Uptown Records in 1987. He quickly proved indispensable to the company and just two years later, at the age of 19, he was promoted to vice president of A&R. Combs helped launch artists like Mary J. Blige to stardome during his time at Uptown, but after being fired in 1993, he launched a joint venture of his own with Arista Records, Bad Boy Entertainment. As a producer for his new label, Combs cultivated new hits in the hip hop sphere including albums by rapper Notorious B.I.G., whose hit single "Mo Money Mo Problems" also included Combs as a featured artist. Combs eventually began releasing his own records as a hip hop artist beginning with 1997's No Way Out, even as he continued to produce a wider and wider variety of musical styles for Bad Boy, surprisingly venturing into pop for the girl group Dream. Combs added "actor" to his list of job titles in 1999 when he acted in the feature film "Made" (1999) shortly before making a small but memorable appearance as Halle Berry's condemned husband in the critically acclaimed drama "Monster's Ball" (2001). Combs also utilized his talents as a producer outside of the recording booth, working behind the scenes to produce the competitive reality series "Making the Band" (MTV, 2002-). In 2004, Combs put his abilities as an actor to an even more rigorous test when he made his Broadway debut playing Walter Lee Younger in a revival of "A Raisin in the Sun." His performance was a triumph, but Combs was soon back in his comfort zone, producing the candid reality series "Run's House" (MTV, 2005-2009) and releasing the 2006 album Press Play. After acting in a memorable role as the dangerous Sergio in the comedy "Get Him to the Greek" (2010), the mogul took on a brand new challenge, launching the TV network Revolt in 2013. The channel, with a focus on news and culture, proved an excellent venue for Combs to executive produce TV series like the talk show "State of the Culture" (Revolt, 2018-).
