Greg Wells

Greg Wells Template:Post-nominals (born 1968) is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and mix engineer from Winterton, Newfoundland and Labrador and Los Angeles. He has worked with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Missy Elliott, Celine Dion, Kid Cudi, Adele, Michael Bublé, Stephen Schwartz, J*Davey, Deftones, Timbaland, Taylor Swift, John Legend, Twenty One Pilots, Selena Gomez, Aerosmith, Elton John, the Count Basie Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ryan Tedder, Weezer, Jazmine Sullivan, Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Jamie Cullum, Pink, Theophilus London, Dua Lipa, Keith Urban, Crash Test Dummies, and Sir George Martin. Throughout his career, Wells has written or produced projects selling a cumulative 130 million units.

A Member of the Order of Canada, Wells is a classically and jazz trained multi-instrumentalist featured as a drummer in Modern Drummer, as a pianist in Keyboard, as a synth programmer in Electronic Musician, as a songwriter in American Songwriter and Billboard, and as a producer, mix engineer, and musician on the cover of Mix with Ryan Tedder in the May 2017 edition.

Wells is known for his philanthropy supporting musicians globally, and his charitable work at Trinity Hall in Winterton, Newfoundland.

Early life

Wells grew up in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, the son of United Church of Canada Reverend Dr. Bill Wells. At age 11, he was in a wheelchair unable to walk for two years with Perthes' disease. Wells attended Adam Scott CVI, learned to play several instruments, and joined many musical ensembles in his hometown from the local orchestra to bar bands to being a church organist/choir director, as well as DJing dances and presenting a weekly radio show on Trent University Radio CFFF-FM. He studied classical piano, drums, pipe organ, orchestral percussion and music theory at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. At age 15, Wells was awarded the top prize out of all categories in the Peterborough Kiwanis Music Festival, the Founders Award, and represented Peterborough twice at the Kiwanis Music Provincial Finals for the province of Ontario. At age 17, he attended the Humber College Jazz Music Program in Toronto as a piano major.

Career

After moving from Peterborough to Toronto at age 17, Wells worked as a live and studio musician with Canadian musicians Rob McConnell and Kim Mitchell. He joined Kim Mitchell's band at age 19. Wells recorded keyboards and backing vocals on Mitchell's Rockland, toured Canada several times with the band, and won the award for Best Keyboardist at the 1990 Toronto Music Awards.

Wells was awarded a Canada Council arts grant to study in California with Terry Trotter, pianist for guitarist Larry Carlton and Frank Sinatra, and Clare Fischer, composer and string arranger for Prince. He traveled to Los Angeles at age 21 with the intention of returning to Canada, but Trotter and Fischer began recommending Wells as a pianist. Wells joined k.d. lang's band soon afterward, performing with her on the 1993 Grammy Awards where she won Best Pop Female Vocal.

His first recorded song as a songwriter was with Aerosmith on the double platinum Nine Lives, followed by "The Reason" on Celine Dion's 31 million selling album, Let's Talk About Love. DreamWorks executive Lenny Waronker tapped Wells in 2001 to produce Rufus Wainwright. Songwriter Kara DioGuardi started collaborating with Wells in 2003. Wells then produced, mixed and played most of the instruments on Mika's 6 million selling #1 debut album Life In Cartoon Motion.

In 2007, Wells produced both Timbaland's and OneRepublic's version of the song, "Apologize". The song ranked number 50 on the list of the Billboard Hot 100's All-Time Top Songs list from the chart's first 50 years. It stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks on the Billboard Pop 100 chart, and spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top 10. It was ranked number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.

The biggest selling worldwide album of 2018 The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was produced and mixed by Wells.

Wells has designed best selling music software, creating the "El Rey" compressor plugin with Acustica Audio and Studio DMI, and a signature series of plugins with Waves Audio.

Wells, Ryan Tedder and Nina Woodford co-wrote (with Wells producing and mixing) the 2019 Special Olympics theme song "Right Where I'm Supposed To Be", executive produced by Quincy Jones. The song was performed by Ryan Tedder, Avril Lavigne, Luis Fonsi, Hussain Al Jassmi, Assala Nasri and Tamer Hosny live at the opening ceremonies in Abu Dhabi.

Wells produced the Grammy and Golden Globe nominated song "Beautiful Ghosts" performed by Taylor Swift for the 2019 film Cats, an adaptation of the 1981 musical of the same name. The song is co-produced with Cats creator Andrew Lloyd Webber, and written by Taylor Swift and Lloyd Webber.

Wells received a Grammy nomination for co-producing and mixing all songs for Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 movie and soundtrack album In the Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu. Wells worked on a second film with Alex Lacamoire and Miranda, the animated hit movie musical Vivo directed by Kirk DeMicco. Wells also worked on a third film for Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, mixing the songs in the musical film Tick, Tick... Boom!.

Wells is the music producer, mix engineer, and multi-instrumentalist for both Wicked films and soundtrack albums.

Personal life

Wells is married to Swedish songwriter Nina Woodford. He has six children. He worked out of his studio in Los Angeles until it was destroyed along with his home in January 2025 during the Palisades Fire.

In 2022, Wells acquired St. Luke's Anglican church in Winterton, Newfoundland and turned it into Trinity Hall, a non-profit music and arts space that raises money for the local community, the Janeway Children's Hospital, and educational programs for Newfoundland musicians.

The Governor General of Canada, the Right Honourable Mary Simon, announced in June 2025 Wells' appointment to the Order Of Canada.

Credits

• Wicked - Wells is music producer for all songs in both films and soundtrack albums, mix engineer and rhythm section multi-instrumentalist playing drums, keyboards, bass and guitars.
• John Legend – Best R&B Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards Wells co-produced, mixed, performed piano, and co-wrote the song "Never Break" from the album Bigger Love.
• Adele – 21, the best-selling album of the 21st century, co-wrote the song "One and Only"
• The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Wells won a 2019 Grammy Award for producing and mixing this number 1 album on iTunes in 77 countries, number 1 in the UK album sales chart for 28 weeks, number 1 in the US album sales chart for three weeks, with the single "This Is Me" winning a 2018 Golden Globe and nominated/performed on the 2018 Academy Awards. The album is the best-selling worldwide album of 2018.
• Twenty One Pilots – 2× Platinum album Vessel produced and mixed.
• In the Heights – received 5th Grammy nomination for co-producing and mixing the songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire, and Bill Sherman.
• Taylor Swift – produced the Golden Globe and Grammy nominated song "Beautiful Ghosts".
• Timbaland and OneRepublic – produced worldwide number 1 hit "Apologize", both the Timbaland remix and the original version.
• Mika – produced, mixed, and played electric guitar, drums, piano and bass guitar on Mika's chart-topping debut single "Grace Kelly" from the album Life in Cartoon Motion which stayed at number 1 for seven weeks in the UK.
• Celine Dion – cowrote #1 European single "The Reason" from the 31 million selling album Let's Talk About Love

Awards

Wells received the Pensado Giant Award at the 2017 Pensado Awards for achievements in the field of record-making. He has been nominated for a Grammy six times, won a Grammy in 2019 for his production and mixing on The Greatest Showman film and soundtrack album, and in 2023 won a 2nd Grammy for Michael Buble's album Higher. In June 2015, Wells was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater Humber College, a music school in Toronto. Wells was nominated as producer of the year in 2000 and 2019 at the Canadian Juno Awards.

Template:Awards table |- ! scope="row" | 2008 | "Love Today" | Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording | style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated |- ! scope="row" | 2011 | Teenage Dream | Grammy Award for Album of the Year | style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated |- ! scope="row" | 2019 | The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media | style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won |- ! scope="row" | 2022 | In The Heights: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media | style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated |- ! scope="row" | 2022 | Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella | Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album | style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated |- ! scope="row" | 2023 | Higher | Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album | style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won

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External links

• Wells interviewed in Variety July 2018
• Wells interviewed in The Advocate August 2018
• Wells interviewed by Grammys June 2018
• Wells interviewed in Electronic Musician magazine, Dec 2011
• Wells interviewed in American Songwriter, Nov 2011
• Wells interviewed in The New York Times