Andre "3000" Benjamin

André "3000" Benjamin is a musician and actor best known for being half of the hip-hop duo Outkast.

Born André Benjamin in Atlanta, Georgia, André 3000 grew up being called "Dre" by his mother, who raised him by herself.

While at Tri-Cities High School for the Performing Arts, he met Antwan Patton, and the two quickly became rivals on the school's rap scene. Just as quickly, though, the two realized that their shared love of music would bring them together, and they became lifelong friends and musical partners.

While still in their teens they got introduced to Organized Noize, an Atlanta production trio, and Benjamin and Patton began hanging out in the trio's studio with other Atlanta artists. Their association with Organized Noize gave rise to an audition with L.A. Reid. That fateful audition led to a recording contract.

The duo changed its name to OutKast and they started to churn out record after record. 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below catapulted the group from under-the-radar to mainstream. The album debuted at #1 on the heels of the mega-popular "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move.” The double album won a Grammy Award for album of the year and "Hey Ya!" was later named on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Benjamin next took on Hollywood, getting out from behind the mic and in front of the camera in the 2003 film Hollywood Homicide, starring alongside Harrison Ford. Two years later he was back on the silver screen with four more films, including Be Cool and Four Brothers. He also joined Quentin Tarantino's production company, A Band Apart, and wrote dozens of songs for movies and TV shows since 1995, from “Any Given Sunday” to “Dancing with the Stars.”

While he has appeared in several films and TV shows over the course of his career, his 2014 role as Jimi Hendrix in All Is by My Side marks one of his biggest on-screen performances to date.

Benjamin was vegan for 15 years but had given it up by 2014. Benjamin has a son with singer Erykah Badu.