Background and career
Tyler Robert Joseph (born December 1, 1988) is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, musician, and record producer best known as the frontman of the musical duo Twenty One Pilots alongside bandmate Josh Dun. He has recorded nine albums: one solo, and eight with Twenty One Pilots. As part of the duo, he has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, of which he has won one, for "Stressed Out."
Tyler Robert Joseph was born on December 1, 1988, in Columbus, Ohio, to Christopher Anthony Joseph and Kelly Joseph (née Stryker). He has two younger brothers and a younger sister. His mother was a math teacher in the Olentangy school district before being named Olentangy Orange High School's basketball coach in 2013. His father was born to a Lebanese father and an American mother and was a coach at Worthington Christian High School from 1996 to 2005, as well as being a former school principal. Joseph was homeschooled in his childhood. His first real exposure to music was the Christian rap rock group DC Talk, and one of Joseph's favorite bands is indie rock band The Killers. Joseph cites Canadian actor and comedian Jim Carrey as another influence, saying that Carrey "helped raise me". Joseph played basketball from a very young age and went on to play point guard for Worthington Christian. In 2008, the varsity basketball team placed second in the Division IV state tournament.
Future Twenty One Pilots bassist Nick Thomas also played on the same team as Joseph, the pair having performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" together at one of their games. After seeing a songwriter perform at a High Street Club, he rejected an opportunity to play basketball at Otterbein University along with a scholarship to the university. He began playing music after finding an old keyboard in his closet, a Christmas gift from his mother, and began to mimic various radio melodies. From around 2007 to 2008, Joseph recorded a solo project titled No Phun Intended in his basement. It was later revealed that Thomas contributed guitar to several songs on the album. Among Joseph's first performances with Twenty One Pilots, he recounts that his mother would often stand outside Ohio State University giving away tickets to his shows. "She'd be like, 'Come see my son play music'", Joseph says.
2007–2009: No Phun Intended Between 2007 and 2008, before assembling the band Twenty One Pilots, Joseph recorded a variety of songs. On November 30, 2008, Joseph uploaded six of these songs to his PureVolume account, titling the release No Phun Intended. The album was recorded in Joseph's senior year of high school from 2007 to 2008, in his basement. The six tracks were "Taken by Sleep", "Drown", "Tonight", "Save", "Hole in the Ground", and "Blasphemy" in that order. Some of Joseph's earlier music has been reworked into Twenty One Pilots recordings. It was later revealed that aside from Joseph, bassist Nick Thomas contributed guitar to several songs. The song "Save" off the release, was redone and released as a free download for some time on Twenty One Pilots' official website before it was pulled. The project became unavailable in 2015, and PureVolume itself shut down in 2018.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
