Samantha Ronson
Ronson in January 2008
Background information
Born	(1977-08-07) 7 August 1977 (age 34)
Origin	London, England, UK
Genres	Hip hop Pop rock
Occupations	DJ Singer-songwriter
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Roc Nation
Associated acts	DJ AM Mark Ronson Wale Alex Greenwald Slash
Website	samantharonson.com

Samantha Judith Ronson (born 7 August 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and disc jockey who lives in Venice, California.

Life and career[link]

Ronson was born in St John's Wood, London to writer/socialite Ann Dexter-Jones and one time music executive and real estate entrepreneur Laurence Ronson.^[1] When she was six years old her parents divorced and she moved with her siblings, mother and her mother's new partner, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, to New York City, where her mother later married Jones.^[2][3] Her parents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with ancestors from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania, and Ronson was brought up in Conservative Judaism.^[4][5] Ronson's family name was originally Aaronson, but her grandfather Henry Ronson changed it to Ronson.^[6] She is the niece of property tycoon Gerald Ronson. Ronson is related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Brittan,^[1] as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch.^[7] Ronson's older brother Mark Ronson is a music producer and musician and her twin Charlotte Ronson, a fashion designer. Ronson also has five younger half-siblings. Alexander and Annabelle, through her mother's remarriage to Mick Jones as well as Henrietta, David and Joshua, through her father's remarriage to model Michele First. Ronson also has two step brothers, Roman and Chris Jones, from Mick Jones previous marriage. Ronson's stepfather Mick Jones contributed to a childhood surrounded by music.^[8][9]

Ronson was educated at the private day school Chapin School on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She later attended New York University (NYU). At the age of sixteen Ronson was in a rap group called the Low Lifes.^[10] Ronson has stated that she fell into DJing by chance. "I got a call one night from a club that I used to hang out at and they were like, 'Do you want to DJ?' "Ronson remembered. "I was like, 'No way,' [but] my friends were like, 'Come on, just do it.' I was always in the club; [I figured I] might as well make money of it. Samantha took the gig and she quickly started to make a name for herself and eventually DJing became a full time job. Today she spins at some of the most high profile gigs around the world. She has spun live for MTV's New Year's Eve show from the network's studios in Times Square.^[11] As well as at the Superbowl, Pan American Games, Sundance Film Festival, amfAR, Cannes Film Festival, AMA and VMA She has played private events for celebrities like Stevie Wonder, Nicole Richie, Lionel Richie , Jessica Simpson, Ellen Degeneres, Natalie Portman, Lindsay Lohan, and Jay Z.^[12] She is currently a resident dj at the Borgata and at the Chateau Nightclub & Gardens. Ronson was the official DJ for Hennesey (Hennesey Black) in 2011.^[13] In 2009 and 2010 Ronson designed her own set of sneakers for the company Supra. Ronson also appeared in a 2011 campaign for cult fashion label Boy London in collaboration with The Cobra Snake (Mark Hunter) .^[14][15] She is or was a co-owner of the New York City nightclub The Plumm, along with actor Chris Noth and Noel Ashman, among others.^[16]

Roc-A-Fella[link]

Ronson became the first rock act signed to Roc-A-Fella Records.^[17] In 2002, it was announced Duncan Sheik would be co-producing an album for Ronson that would be out in the spring.^[18] Ronson released four songs on Roc-A-Fella Records  : "Pull My Hair Out", "Fool", "If It's Gonna Rain" and "Built This Way," and wrote and recorded her first album, Red. "Built This Way" was featured in the movie Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams.^[19] "Pull my hair out" was featured on the soundtrack of the movie The woodsman starring Kevin Bacon and the song "Wanted", by Rhymefest featuring Samantha Ronson, appeared in the movie Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling.^[20] In 2004, she opened for JC Chasez on his Schizophrenic tour. However, inauspicious timing and the dissolution of the Roc-A-Fella Records led to her first album never being released.^[21] Although Red was never officially released, downloads were made available from her MySpace page. Ronson has also made a number of appearances on mix tapes produced by artists on the Roc-A-Fella label.

Chasing the Reds[link]

In November 2011, Ronson released the album Chasing the Reds on her own label, Broken Toy Records. Guest stars appear on the album including Wale on “Summer of Sam”, Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet on “Captain Jack” and Slash on the track "Love song". The album was produced by Jimmy Messer former guitarist with Goudie and Kelly Clarkson with Ronson herself sharing co producing credits. Her brother Mark Ronson produced one track,"Skyscrapers", which was cowritten by the siblings with Santigold.^[22]

Legal actions[link]

In May 2007, Lindsay Lohan crashed her Mercedes-Benz in Beverly Hills. Police found a "small amount" of cocaine in her car and blogger Perez Hilton posted on his blog that the drugs belonged to Ronson, using another celebrity gossip blog as a source for the story. Two weeks later he started selling "Blame Samantha" t-shirts and called Ronson a "lezbot dj". Ronson hired Martin Garbus to start a defamation suit against Hilton and the original source for the story, Celebrity Babylon. Celebrity Babylon agreed to issue a retraction and apology on the understanding that Ronson would drop the claim; Hilton's lawyers asked the judge to throw out the case as an assault on his free speech rights. Garbus thought that it would be impossible to produce evidence that Hilton had acted with malice and reached an agreement with Hilton which would have kept Ronson from paying his legal fees. Ronson wanted Hilton's retraction and vetoed the proposal. Around the same time Garbus presented a $100,000 bill after the $25,000 retainer had been accounted for. Garbus withdrew from the case and neither he nor Ronson appeared at Hilton's hearing, where the judge ruled in Hilton's favour dismissing the case and ordering Ronson to pay Hilton's $85,000 legal fees.^[23] Two weeks later Garbus sued Ronson in New York for close to $142,000 in fees and services. He later dropped that suit. In May, Ronson filed suit against Garbus in Los Angeles County Superior Court, contending that his incompetence had lost the case against Hilton and asking for damages in excess of $300,000. Among the allegations was that Garbus failed to fulfill his duties as her attorney because he was focused on collecting his fees. In response to Ronson's malpractice suit he countersued to recover his fees.^[23]

On August 1, 2011, Ronson was pulled over in Baker, California, while driving her Porsche Targa back home from Las Vegas. She was stopped for driving 89 m.p.h. in a 70 m.p.h. speed zone, initially but was given a balance test, since she seemed impaired. She was arrested for 2 misdemeanors for driving under the influence. Police claimed Ronson was cooperative and friendly.^[24]

Personal life[link]

In 2008 media outlets began commenting on Ronson and actress Lindsay Lohan, who were regularly seen being affectionate in public. Several newspapers, including The Times and the Los Angeles Times, published opinion pieces describing their relationship as romantic.^[25][26][27] Lohan long refrained from commenting on the exact nature of their relationship, stating through her publicist that she "wants to keep her private life private."^[26] In September 2008, it was widely reported that Lohan confirmed on the syndicated radio program, Loveline, that she was, in fact, dating Ronson. During the program, DJ Stryker asked "You and Samantha have been going out for how long now?...Like two years, one year, five months, two months?" to which Lohan laughed, and replied "For a very long time." Stryker then went on to say "Well, I hope you guys stay together. You are a very lovely looking couple", to which Lohan replied, "Thank you very much."^[28][29][30] Lohan opened up about her relationship with Ronson in the December 2008 issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine. She stated, "I think it's pretty obvious who I'm seeing... I think it's no shock to anyone that it's been going on for quite some time... She's a wonderful person and I love her very much."^[31] They later broke up. Ronson stated, in a July 2010 interview with The Times, that she loves Lohan as a human being, but the paparazzi attention grew to be too much^[32]

In June 2011, Ronson was pictured with music producer David Foster' s daughter, actress/writer, Erin Foster, several media outlets reported that Ronson and Foster were a couple.^[33][34] The two have been photographed frequently together ^[35] but Ronson has never commented on the relationship other than to state she is not single.^[36]

Cameos[link]

Ronson appears in the videos for Usher and Alicia Keys'"My Boo", Awolnation's "Burn it down", N.E.R.D's "Everyone Nose" and Ghostface Killah, Nate Dogg & Mark Ronson "Oh wee". In addition to a commercial for the Gap featuring the rapper Common.

Albums[link]

• Samantha Ronson- Red. Roc-a-Fella Records (2004) (Unreleased)
• Samantha Ronson & The Undertakers - Chasing the Reds, Broken Toys Records (2011)

Mixtapes[link]

• Samantha Ronson & DJ AM - Challah Mixtape (2003)
• Mark Ronson & Samantha Ronson Get High Mixtape (2004)
• Mark Ronson & Samantha Ronson : Get S R - The C Ronson Mixtape (2004)
• Samantha Ronson -Chasing the Red Mix CD (2011)

Singles[link]

• "Pull My Hair Out" (2004)
• "Built This Way" (2004)
• "Fool" (2000)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Samantha Ronson at the Internet Movie Database
• Samantha Ronson on Myspace
• Samantha Ronson on Twitter