Questlove
Academy Award-winning filmmaker, GRAMMY Award-winning musician, producer, DJ, director, culinary entrepreneur, and New York Times best-selling author
Academy Award-winning filmmaker, GRAMMY Award-winning musician, producer, DJ, director, investor, advisor, culinary entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and member of The Roots – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, is the unmistakable heartbeat of Philadelphia’s most influential hip-hop group.
He is the Musical Director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where his beloved Roots crew serves as house band. Beyond that, this 6-time GRAMMY Award winning musician's indisputable reputation has landed him musical directing positions with everyone from D'Angelo to Jay-Z.
In 2021, Questlove made his directorial debut with the Academy Award winning feature documentary Summer of Soul, which explores the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The film premiered on the opening night of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the “Grand Jury Prize” and “Audience Award for Best U.S. Documentary.”
Questlove was also recently honored with the Sundance Institute’s 2021 Vanguard Award for his work on the film.
He has authored multiple books including the New York Times bestsellers Mo’ Meta Blues and Creative Quest, the GRAMMY nominated audio book Creative Quest, Soul Train: The Music, Dance and Style of a Generation, the James Beard nominated somethingtofoodabout, Mixtape Potluck and the newly best seller Music Is History.
Questlove has been a voice in the culinary world as the author of Mixtape Potluck and the James Beard Nominated somethingtofoodabout, the host of a series of Food Salons with world-renowned and innovative chefs, and the launch of, Questlove’s CheesesteakTM made with ImpossibleTM soldNationwide. Questlove has appeared as a Guest Judge on Top Chef Season 11 and his interest in food, his investments, and his own culinary endeavors have been featured on the cover of New York Magazine, in Forbes, Vogue, Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appetit, People, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and seen on The View, The Today Show, Watch What Happens Live, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
He is an early stage investor in the high growth sector of “future of food” companies including; Impossible Foods, EAT JUST, NotCo, Perfect Day, RightRice, Ocean Huggers, Apeel, Neutral Foods, and Magic Spoon. Being early to alternative proteins, Questlove is focused on what is new and who impacts it. He is strategically investing in companies at the intersection of food and health and food and climate that aspire to have a social or environmental impact in food, technology, agriculture, and biotech with a “better for you, better for the planet” mission. He has partnered with his portfolio companies on several initiatives focused on food access, food equity, and education.
In 2022, Questlove co-founded the Future of Food Entrepreneurship Program, a Summer program that provides historically disenfranchised high school students insight into the emerging food tech and ag tech industries and opportunity to work on a Product Challenge that identifies a problem within the food system.
Additionally, Questlove has served on the board of the Food Education Fund, an independent nonprofit organization that serves students and alumni from culinary and hospitality focused career and technical education (CTE) public high school programs in New York City.
