PHARRELL WILLIAMS: 2025 Candle Award in Arts and Entertainment Honoree

Pharrell Williams is a visionary recording artist, producer, songwriter, philanthropist, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. From his beginnings as a teenage prodigy and multi-instrumentalist in Virginia Beach to his current status as a creative force in the music industry and beyond, with over 10B combined global music streams, Williams has never stopped creating.

Starting his producing career as one half of The Neptunes with longtime production partner Chad Hugo, Williams has helped create classics such as Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” JAY-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me),” Britney Spears’ “I’m A Slave 4 U,” and Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You.” Over four albums, Williams and Hugo, along with Shae Haley, created an unpredictable hybrid as part of the Virginia Beach alt-rock/hip-hop group N.E.R.D., which reunited for 2017’s No One Ever Really Dies. The album debuted with the wildly successful single, “Lemon,” featuring Rihanna, and includes world-class artists such as Kendrick Lamar, André 3000, M.I.A., Future, Wale, Gucci Mane, and Ed Sheeran.

The music industry has honored Williams with 13 Grammy Awards, including 2004’s, 2014’s and 2019’s Producer of the Year, and ASCAP’s prestigious Golden Note Award in 2012. He received a 2017 Academy Award nomination as Producer for Best Picture-nominated Hidden Figures, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for co-scoring the film. In 2014, his original song “Happy,” featured in the animated film Despicable Me 2, also received an Academy Award nomination. “Happy” remained atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart for ten consecutive weeks, peaking at No. 1 on iTunes in 103 markets worldwide, and was the lead single from his 2014 solo album, G I R L. In 2020, Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for his work as The Neptunes.

In 2022, Pharrell produced a number of works including Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry, Rosalía’s “Hentai” and “MOTOMAMI,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale” for which Pharrell has received a 2023 Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, Jack Harlow’s “Movie Star,” Summer Walker’s “Dat Right There,” Latto’s “Real One,” Omar Apollo’s “Tamagotchi,” Tobe Nwigwe & Earthgang’s “Lord Forgive Me,” and A$AP Ferg’s “Green Juice.” Williams also released two original songs – “Down in Atlanta,” featuring Travis Scott and  “Cash In Cash Out” featuring 21 Savage and Tyler, the Creator, which became one of Williams’ most successful records in recent history with over 93M streams worldwide.

In 2018, Pharrell narrated Universal’s remake of the classic film The Grinch, authored the book A Fish Doesn’t Know It’s Wet, and released the Netflix Original series Brainchild (2018) with his producing partner, Mimi Valdés. Other projects include Dope (2015), Roxanne Roxanne (2017), Voices of Fire (2020) and Amazon’s Harlem, which has been renewed for a third season. Pharrell recently released his critically-acclaimed animated biopic PIECE BY PIECE, produced by his company i am OTHER and directed by Morgan Neville in partnership with Focus Features and LEGO®.

In 2019, Williams was nominated for an Emmy for his original song, "Letter to My Godfather," for Netflix’s Black Godfather about the legendary music executive, Clarence Avant. Williams also produced five songs on the soundtrack for Disney’s 2019 remake of their classic The Lion King. In 2020, Williams teamed up with Jay-Z to release their single “Entrepreneur,” a song celebrating and empowering Black entrepreneurs.

That same year, Pharrell founded YELLOW, a non-profit working to even the odds for all youth through education. YELLOW’s ecosystem approach puts youth at the center and surrounds them with the support they need to realize their potential. In 2021, YELLOW launched YELLOWHAB — an immersive educational environment that sparks imagination in a story-filled space where children transcend the everyday on a journey for deeper learning. In 2020, Williams launched Black Ambition, a non-profit initiative providing a bridge to success for Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs who are launching tech, design, Web3, healthcare, and consumer products/services start-ups. Black Ambition is committed to leveling the playing field and fostering the ingenuity, determination, and resilience of underrepresented entrepreneurs.

Not stopping there, Pharrell has excelled as a fashion designer with his Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream apparel brands, adidas, Richard Mille, Moncler and the textile company Bionic Yarn, for which he serves as Creative Director. Williams also serves as the Chief Brand Officer of Doodles, a collection of 10,000 NFTs that are made up of hundreds of exciting visual traits designed by Burnt Toast. In the fall of 2019, Williams teamed up with David Grutman and opened both Swan and Bar Bevy in Miami’s Design District, and The Goodtime Hotel in 2021. In 2020, Pharrell founded Humanrace™, a product company with a mission to empower all individuals in the pursuit of wellbeing across product and people. In February 2023, Pharrell was named Louis Vuitton’s Menswear Creative Director.

In April 2019, Pharrell launched the first ever SOMETHING IN THE WATER (SITW), a multi-day music festival and cultural experience on the beach in his hometown of Virginia Beach. The festival’s mission was to unite the community and celebrate the diversity and magic of Virginia Beach. 

A longtime advocate against racial injustice, Pharrell was an integral part in the talks with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam about Juneteenth being a permanent paid state holiday, and continued to make the push for it to become a national holiday.