Kehlani Ashley Parrish, better known as Kehlani, is an American singer-songwriter and dancer.

Born in Oakland, California, Kehlani showed talent in the arts at an early age despite a difficult homelife. They showed prowess in dance and even trained in ballet and modern dance in the hopes of performing professionally. Unfortunately, an injury to their knee closed that dream, and they switched to pursue music instead.

Kehlani began her music career in the teen pop group PopLyfe. They, alongside their groupmates, competed on the sixth season of America’s Got Talent. After landing in fourth place, Kehlani couldn’t release music to avoid being sued by their former group’s management, which resulted in them being briefly homeless. Eventually, they managed to release their first solo track, ANTISUMMERLUV, on SoundCloud, which drew the eyes of Nick Cannon, who had recognized her talent during America’s Got Talent.

Canon helped them with their living situation and even got them time in a recording studio, which would result in their first mixtape, Cloud 19. The mixtape did well, ranking 28 on Complex’s list of the “50 Best Albums of 2014,  and featured on Pitchfork’s Overlooked Mixtapes 2014 list. Kehlani went on to release another successful mixtape, You Should Be Here, which earned them their first spot on a Billboard Chart. Kehlani’s popularity continued to climb, collaborating with artists like Chance the Rapper, Zayn, and BJ the Chicago Kid, and was even recognized by pivotal editorials like Rolling Stone.

This led to the success of their first studio album, SweetSexySavage, with Atlantic Records in 2017. Since then, Kehlani has gone on to release three more successful studio albums, which cemented them in as a mainstream star. Kehlani has since collaborated with stars like Justin Bieber, Lucky Daye, Kwn, Vince Staples, FLO, Teyana Taylor, Rico Nasty, GloRilla, Destin Conrad, and more.

Outside of music, Kehlani is known for her activism in politics and in LGBTQ issues, following the journey with her own gender and sexual identity. Now, she is outspoken about her identity as a non-binary aligned individual and goes by she/they pronouns.